We all talk about eHealth, yet I struggle to define the term.

As the healthcare internet landscape shifts to another dimension, I invite you in a debate that has the objective of defining that landscape.

In 1995 things were easy. There were a few 1000 health-related websites.  Most of these were of the informational content variety. The giants of informational content entered the arena and the landscape had its first change.

1996 saw the first major uplift of the number of people who have access to the internet. It was the same year that we saw the first attempts to set standards for health website from the Health on the Net Foundation, the British Healthcare Internet Association and Bill Silberg. That was followed a year later by the formation of the Internet Healthcare Coalition.

The period 1997-1999 saw the emergence of the venture capitalist feeding frenzy, the explosion of health websites and the events that led to the second round of standards setting by the 'eHealth Ethics Summit' and 'Hi-Ethics' in 2000.

It was that same year that we saw the collapse of the dot com landscape, with the most profound effect being felt by the healthcare sector. Yet, we do not see any significant trade associations forming that would protect and lobby for the interests of the sector.

Amidst all this there remains a large number of individual and voluntary group efforts to provide internet health information of varying quality and difficult to assess impact.

What was the promise?

Perhaps a combination, the assumption being that better access to information will lead to better health outcomes?

Was the promise fulfilled?  Is it likely to be fulfilled?

Today, we see convergence of information and communication technologies in general and internet technologies in particular and health informatics.

The doctors hearts and minds, and more importantly, their desktop real estate remain to be won and the mountains to climb are very high and treacherous. On the whole, doctors remain ambivalent at best and hostile at worst. You see, no one is addressing their real needs. "Make my day easier or go away" is what many doctors yell to deaf ears.

So, is this it? That the healthcare internet landscape is shifting to a model of 'web informatics'?

Does 'eHealth' mean 'web health informatics'?

What are the various components of eHealth?

Let me know what you think.  Email me your views.