A holistic approach to exploring the divided standards landscape in E-Health research

Based on the importance of standards in providing safe, interoperable, and quality healthcare, a growing body of literature explores e-Health services and systems in combination with standards and standardization. Yet a holistic approach to assess the state of academic research that involves standards and e-Health across diverse disciplines has not been taken up to date. To understand the dynamics of e-Health standards, particularly on the role and effect of those standards, this paper systematically reviews the standards landscape in e-Health research. We found three key themes: first, standards for e-Health in developed and developing countries; second, types of standards and their effects on interoperability, quality and security; third, implementation of standards in terms of adoption by healthcare organizations and application in the process of e-Health framework developments. This paper makes academic contributions by extracting common themes across disciplines and intends to provide practical implications for facilitating e-Health interventions while taking the benefits and challenges associated with standards into consideration.