3. Smart Indicators 3.6 Smart Living e‐Health.
e‐Health. Electronic health card.
e‐Health is defined as the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to issues affecting health care, from the diagnosis to monitoring patients, including the management of the organisations involved in these activities. e‐Health provides citizens with considerable advantages in terms of information and it even promotes the attainment of alternative diagnoses and of remote assistance. Among the advantages of e‐Health systems, we can mention the increased feeling of confidence in patients, who see an improvement in their quality of life, reduced costs for medical institutions in terms of resources and time, on‐going support and the reduction of access barriers to health care.
Asked about the availability of electronic health cards in their cities, of the 17 cities (1 in Africa, 7 in Latin America, 1 in Asia and 8 in Europe) that responded to the question, only 35% have electronic health cards in place. In the case of Africa, none of cities have implemented electronic health cards. In Latin America, only 17% of the cities have this system in place; such as the city of Colima. The percentage of cities increases in Europe, where half of the cities have some sort of electronic health card. This is the case in the cities of Helsinki, Bilbao, Katowice and Malmö. Meanwhile, in Asia, Taipei also has some type of electronic health card.
% of cities that have some form of electronic health card, by region Does your city have some type of electronic health card? 100%
100%
90%
No 11 cities 65%
80% 70% 60% 50%
50%
40% 30% 20%
Yes 7 cities 35%
0%
10%
14%
0%
Africa
Latin America
Asia
Europe
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