Evaluating eHealth: Undertaking Robust International Cross-Cultural eHealth Research

eHealth—the use of electronic tools in delivering health care [1]—is rapidly emerging as an international priority in nations at all levels of development, yet the benefits and priorities have not clearly been defined. The result is that there is an urgent need for additional research in this area. International research to evaluate the impact of eHealth would be especially helpful, and unless this begins to take place potential economies of scale may not be realized. Recent events illustrate that the world economy is increasingly global; yet eHealth applications are generally local, regional, or, in a few instances, national. Nonetheless, enormous savings might be realized rapidly if international eHealth collaborations become more frequent, and more knowledge generation and even data interchange begin to occur. International collaborations in delivering and evaluating eHealth present many opportunities but also very substantial challenges. In this Essay, we describe and discuss some of these opportunities and challenges, and present a few examples of successful international collaborations. We also lay out some suggestions and recommendations on the next steps in undertaking robust international cross-cultural eHealth research.