From telehealth to E-health: Internet and distributed virtual reality in health care

Since the development of methods of electronic communication, clinicians have been using information and communication technologies for the exchange of health-related information. However, the emergence of new shared media, such as the Internet and virtual reality are changing the ways in which people relate, communicate, and live. E-health, the integration of telehealth technologies with the Internet, is the next logical step of this process. To date, some e-health applications have improved the quality of health care, and later they will lead to substantial cost savings. However, e-health is not simply a technology but a complex technological and relational process. In this sense, clinicians and health care providers that want to successfully exploit e-health need to pay significant attention to technology, ergonomics, human factors and organizational changes in the structure of the relevant health service. The goal of the article is to analyze the processes by which e-health applications can contribute to the delivery of state-of-the-art health services. Particular attention is given to shared hypermedia and distributed virtual reality worlds.