In this chapter, current practices of healthcare delivery in three economically advanced countries will be reviewed. Is healthcare delivery commensurate with economic prosperity? Countries with technological and economic advantages may be better poised to deliver healthcare efficiently. However, this is not the case in fact. The following review will show that medico-legal and technological pro...

Over the years, national and sub-national governments have introduced several initiatives to improve access to maternal and child health services in India. However, financial barriers have posed major constraints. Based upon the data of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) round 4 for Odisha state, our paper examines the out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) borne by households for accessing materna...

Healthcare is an increasingly collaborative enterprise involving many individuals and organizations that coordinate their efforts toward promoting quality and efficient delivery of healthcare through the use of interoperable healthcare information systems. This paper presents a mediator-based approach for achieving data and service interoperability among disparate and geographically dispersed h...

With the rapid merger of healthcare business and information technology, more healthcare institutions and medical practices are sharing information. Since these records often contain patients’ sensitive personal information, Healthcare Information Systems (HISs) should be properly designed to manage these records in a secure manner. We propose a novel security design for the HIS complying with ...

Health is a basic requirement to improve the quality of life. Providing effective health care is an essential component towards the social and economic development of a country. A large number of people in the developing countries, particularly in rural and remote areas, remained with no or little access to health care facilities. However, recent emergence of mobile communication technologies c...

The Catholic Health Association (CHA) Leadership Task Force on National Health Policy Reform has offered a proposal that, if enacted by Congress, would result in profound changes in the way providers deliver healthcare in the United States. The proposal would result in fewer acute healthcare facilities, challenge some acute care facilities to provide additional services and require each Catholi...

Modernization of medical healthcare system using technology has become an important in research direction today. Transforming healthcare so as to better meet the needs of patients will require changes to strengthen delivery of care for patients who already have a good access to services, as well as changes to improve care for patients who find it harder to get the care they need. Diagnosis is a...

Healthcare delivery, irrespective of the region in the world, is facing the key challenges of escalating costs, an aging population, an increase in a myriad of diagnostic technologies and the rise of chronic diseases which in turn is leading to a more and more preventative focus. In short, the current state of healthcare delivery is not sustainable (OECD, 2012a;2012b; Porter and Guth, 2012; Por...

The Republic of Singapore is an island city-state in Southeast Asia. Its population enjoys good health and the Singapore Ministry of Health's mission is to promote good health and reduce illness, ensure access to good and affordable health care, and pursue medical excellence. This is achieved through a healthcare system that includes both private and public sector elements. The financing philos...