What is Digital Health? Review of Definitions

Farhad Fatehi; Mahnaz Samadbeik; Azar Kazemi

doi:10.3233/SHTI200696

What is Digital Health? Review of Definitions

Farhad Fatehi, Mahnaz Samadbeik, Azar Kazemi

Psychology

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

81 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Digital technologies are transforming the health sector all over the world, however various aspects of this emerging field of science is yet to be properly understood. Ambiguity in the definition of digital health is a hurdle for research, policy, and practice in this field. With the aim of achieving a consensus in the definition of digital health, we undertook a quantitative analysis and term mapping of the published definitions of digital health. After inspecting 1527 records, we analyzed 95 unique definitions of digital health, from both scholar and general sources. The findings showed that digital health, as has been used in the literature, is more concerned about the provision of healthcare rather than the use of technology. Wellbeing of people, both at population and individual levels, have been more emphasized than the care of patients suffering from diseases. Also, the use of data and information for the care of patients was highlighted. A dominant concept in digital health appeared to be mobile health (mHealth), which is related to other concepts such as telehealth, eHealth, and artificial intelligence in healthcare.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Integrated Citizen Centered Digital Health and Social Care
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings of the EFMI 2020 Special Topic Conference
Publisher	IOS Press
Pages	67-71
Number of pages	5
ISBN (Print)	9781643681443 , 9781643681450
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI200696
Publication status	Published - 23 Nov 2020
Event	European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI STC 2020) - virtual Duration: 26 Nov 2020 → 27 Nov 2020 https://ebooks.iospress.nl/volume/integrated-citizen-centered-digital-health-and-social-care-citizens-as-data-producers-and-service-co-creators

Publication series

Name	Studies in Health Technology and Informatics
Publisher	IOS Press
Volume	275
ISSN (Print)	0926-9630

Conference

Conference	European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI STC 2020)
Abbreviated title	EFMI STC 2020
Period	26/11/20 → 27/11/20
Internet address	https://ebooks.iospress.nl/volume/integrated-citizen-centered-digital-health-and-social-care-citizens-as-data-producers-and-service-co-creators

Keywords

content analysis
definition
digital health
term mapping

Access to Document

10.3233/SHTI200696Licence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

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Fatehi, F, Samadbeik, M & Kazemi, A 2020, What is Digital Health? Review of Definitions. in Integrated Citizen Centered Digital Health and Social Care: Proceedings of the EFMI 2020 Special Topic Conference. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, vol. 275, IOS Press, pp. 67-71, European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI STC 2020), 26/11/20. https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI200696

What is Digital Health? Review of Definitions. / Fatehi, Farhad; Samadbeik, Mahnaz; Kazemi, Azar.
Integrated Citizen Centered Digital Health and Social Care: Proceedings of the EFMI 2020 Special Topic Conference. IOS Press, 2020. p. 67-71 (Studies in Health Technology and Informatics; Vol. 275).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

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What is Digital Health? Review of Definitions

Abstract

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Conference

Keywords

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