Barriers to the diffusion of telecare and telehealth in the EU: a literature review

The implementation and diffusion of telecare and telehealth products and services falls behind the expectations of policymakers and developers. While several European and national programmes promote the research and development of innovative solutions, products and services have not yet scaled up. This paper tries to identify and categorize existing barriers. We conducted a literature review between July and August 2014 covering multiple literature databases and search engines. The data was analysed qualitatively; analysis was guided by a categorization scheme. We categorized five domains affecting the adoption, implementation and diffusion of telehealth and telecare: technology, acceptance, financial, organizational and the outer context, each covering multiple barriers.