E-health in Ontario: a multi-dimensional governance transformation

The purpose of this article is to undertake a critical examination of the emergence of e-health in the Canadian Province of Ontario. More than solely a technological challenge, the emergence and pursuit of e-health denotes a complex governance transformation both within the province's public sector and across society as a whole. Furthermore, although healthcare delivery is a provincial jurisdiction, there are a variety of local and national variables that also shape this complex equation. The Ontario challenge here is complicated by the absence of formal regional mechanisms devoted to healthcare, a deficiency that has precipitated the creation of Local Health Integration Networks to foster e-health strategies on a sub-provincial basis. Indeed, a key finding of this article is that the creation of effective capacities for public and community engagement may well be the most central requirement facing the province of Ontario at present.