PART FIVE

E-HEALTH PROSPECTS

An overview and a vision of e-health were provided in Part One of this book, followed by a discussion of the foundations of e-health in Part Two. Part Three explored e-health domains and applications. Part Four discussed the management of e-health and how it affects the health care and health services industry. Part Five, the final part of this book, deals with the development of trends leading to the evolution of the e-health paradigm shift. Chapter Sixteen recognizes the emergence of virtual reality as another frontier of e-health systems and environments. Chapter Sixteen also analyzes the concept of consumer-driven e-health systems and links this concept with the fundamentals of e-health that have been stressed throughout this book. Finally, the chapter attempts to chart the future of e-health technologies and what humans can make of these technologies.