Abstract
According to a report on e-marketplaces for the health sector (Kuller, 2005), the European Health and Social Services sector is a complex web of “businesses” and “customers,” characterized by a combination of public and private providers who control the strategic direction and finances. The services are delivered by microbusinesses, that is, hospitals, clinics, general practitioners, and specialists, and delivered through government, public, or nonprofit bodies, not the private sector (although this is slowly changing in some countries) (Kuller, 2005). The resulting absence of the profit goal means that the motivation for changing business processes and implementing tools is driven by a need to improve “patient care,” and not a desire to make or save money. This partly explains why the Health and Social Services sector lags behind others with regard to IT infrastructure in place and e-business usage.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Market of Resources for Healthcare Teleservices: An institutionalized organizational framework and service to support health information management and integration and teleservices delivery. The operational aspect of the market of resources consists on an Internet-based intermediation service, matching the demand of teleservices, that is, the users who are telemonitored and who can need special care at a given moment, and offer, represented by health care professionals.
BM_Virtual Enterprise Architecture Reference Model: BM_VEARM is a VE reference model conceived for enabling the highest organizational/structural/reconfiguration and operational inter-enterprise dynamics of VE, employing three main mechanisms for VE dynamic creation, reconfiguration, and operation: (1) market of resources, (2) broker, and (3) virtuality. Additionally, BM_VEARM implies the highest level of integration and (geographic) distribution of VE elements (partners in the VE network).
Teleservices: Delivery of services from a distance using Internet-based platforms or supporting environments.
E-Health: As defined by the European e-Health Ministerial Declaration of May 2003, e-health refers to the use of modern information and communication technologies to meet needs of citizens, patients, health care professionals, health care providers, as well as policy makers.