A Study of Healthcare Accessibility Through E-Health in Hong Kong

This strategic business project proposal examines healthcare accessibility through e-health in Hong Kong. It explores the concept of e-health, its role in promoting health and wellbeing, and the barriers to its implementation. The research aims to evaluate healthcare accessibility via mobile healt...Read More

Running head: STRATEGIC BUSINESS PROJECT PROPOSAL
A Study Of Healthcare Accessibility Through E-Health In Hong Kong And Challenges In Its
Implementations
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction:...........................................................................................................................4
1.1 Introduction:.....................................................................................................................4
1.2 Research aim and objectives:...........................................................................................4
1.3 Research question:...........................................................................................................4
1.3 The Research Problem:....................................................................................................5
1.6 Significance of the research:............................................................................................5
1.7 Scope of the research:......................................................................................................5
2. Literature review:...................................................................................................................6
3. Research methodology:..........................................................................................................8
4. Research schedule:...............................................................................................................10
References:...............................................................................................................................12
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1. Introduction:
1.1 Introduction:
This research aims to discuss about the degree of healthcare accessibility through
mobile health or e-health in the context of Hong Kong. Mobile health is defined as the
practice of applying medicine and promoting public health with the assistance of
telecommunication technologies and mobile communication devices. The fundamental
purpose of using e-health within health and social care setting is to transform necessary
health related information to the people and thereby providing high quality of services to
them (Stone and Waldron 2019). As the burden of disease is rapidly increasing, both the
mobile app and wearing devises in the healthcare setting is rapidly increasing for controlling
the disease and promote health and wellbeing the among the people.
1.2 Research aim and objectives:
The fundamental aim of this research is “To evaluate the healthcare accessibility
through e-health within Hong Kong”.
The objectives of this research are as follows:
 To evaluate the concept of e-health To figure out the role of e-health in promoting health and wellbeing To understand the barriers of implementing e-health in developing countries
1.3 Research question: What is the concept of e-health?
 What is the role of e-health in promoting health and wellbeing?
 What are the barriers of implementing e-health in developing countries?
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1.3 The Research Problem:
Rapid infusion of information and communication technology within the health
services is promptly and acting as a driving force behind the improvement of healthcare
facility (Nymberg et al. 2019). One of the major advantage of e-health is that it helps in
proving high quality of healthcare facility irrespective of the geographical barriers. However,
Voutsidou et al. (2019) argued by saying that infrastructure is the developing countries is a
major barrier in the way of accessing supreme quality of e-health. In addition, lack of
inadequate access to computer is another major barrier in the way of implement e-health.
This is the main issue, identified in the research, which must be mitigated, in order to allow
people to access high quality of healthcare facility through a simple click.
1.6 Significance of the research:
Advent of new and modern technology is playing a pivotal role in strengthening the
health and social care setting. This is resulting in e-health services, which is one of the most
important factors for the sake of maintaining the ratio in between doctor and patient around
the world. E-health is defines as the medical and public health practice, through devices such
asmobile phones, patient monitoring devices and personal digital assistants, which intends to
provide the patients with high quality of healthcare facility (Casado-Vara and Corchado
2019). There lies the significance of this research as it will help in understanding how e-
health is helping in effective delivery of high quality of healthcare facility.
1.7 Scope of the research:
With the shift of focus towards disease prevention and promote individual wellbeing,
the technological solution is playing a major role in proactive and effective intervention of
diseases and thereby remove the burden of disease. In addition, e-health is technology is also
helping in removing the barriers of care and thereby access equal access to everyone. After
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the completion of this research, the researcher will be able to collect and evaluate relevant
data easily, which will help in amplifying the quality of research.
2. Literature review:
The fundamental purpose of this research is to evaluate the degree, to which the
people can access high quality of healthcare facility through mobile health and e-health. With
the rapid development of technology, the accessibility of healthcare facility through e-health
is increasing in a rapid manner. There lies the importance of this research as it will help in
analysing the role of e-health in accessing healthcare facility (Hossain et al. 2019). Mobile
technology based health care services (mHealth) is defined as the new form of healthcare
delivery, which is paving the way for healthcare organisations to deliver high quality and cost
effective people to all of the people, irrespective of their geographical location and socio-
economic background. E-health is referred as the way of using information and
communication technology in the health and social care setting. This is the way of integrating
medical information and transform them to the people, through information and
communication technology. Both information and communication technology has
transformed the healthcare delivery in most of the countries radically. Application of mobile
based technology is playing a major role in improving the accessibility of healthcare delivery
and making it affordable to everyone (Lopez 2019).
In the contemporary times, technology is playing a pivotal role in the way of
promoting developing and evolution of all the sectors around the world. This is so with the
case of health and social care. The implementation of ICT in healthcare is defined as e-health,
which is emerging promptly in the health and social care setting. This is the mode of
developing accurate technology in order to deal with critical health related issues and provide
affordable healthcare facility to everyone. Through this way, both national and global health
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can be promoted. In the contemporary times, e-health has become one of the most emerging
sectorsn the intersection of medical informatics and thereby deliver better care to the patients.
This is one of the most cost effective ways of using information, which comprises of health
surveillance and health education, knowledge and research (Farahani et al. 2020). E-health is
the mode of using modern information and telecommunication technology in order to meet
the need of patients, healthcare professionals and policy makers and thereby promote health
and wellbeing among the people.
The fundamental purpose of using e-health is to use digital technologies such as
computers, the Internet, and mobile devices in order to improve healthcare facility and
service. In the contemporary times, e-health is playing a pivotal role in creating digital
healthcare environment, in which people can get personalised information regarding their
health. In addition, such information allows the healthcare practitioners to practice efficiently
and determine the right treatment without any kind of mistake (Lv et al. 2019). Additionally,
through m-health the doctors can share information securely with the colleagues and patients.
However, lack of local skills, knowledge and resources along with the lack of computer
literate workers are acting as greatest barriers in the way of implementing e-health in the
developing countries. Additionally, socio-cultural differences between the sites are another
major barrier in practicing e-health (Rahmani et al. 2018).
In the contemporary times, e-health is playing a pivotal role in the way of monitoring
the health outcome among patient, providing them with necessary information and reminding
them to take required medicine (Miah et al. 2017). This is the mode of advancing the health
and social care sector and providing the patients with high quality of healthcare facility.
However, from the literature, it is evident that there are some of the major issues, which are
creating obstacles in the way of implementing e-health in most of the developing countries.
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Presently, e-health can have enormous impact in the way of improving health
outcome and promote health and wellbeing among the people. This is the way of using
mobile phone in health and social care setting and ensure its affordability and accessibility of
all of the people amidst their financial condition and geographical location (Ryan and
Kushalnagar 2018).
3. Research methodology:
Research methodology is one of the major aspects of designing a research in a
systematic manner and thereby ensure its completion in a timely and cost effective manner
(Kumar 2019). This research is based on the analysis of the extent to which the people can
access the healthcare facility through e-health. In order to complete the research properly,
strong research methods will be chosen. Appropriate selection of research methodology will
help the researcher to present his findings in a proper manner. In the research, the researcher
will use various tools which is the key of completing the research in a systematic manner.
Research philosophy is one of the most important parts of research methodology,
which is defined as the set of belief of the researcher regarding the course of research.
Research philosophy helps in developing the nature of study properly (Ledford and Gast
2018). Positivism, realism and interpretivism are the different types of research philosophy.
In the present research, the researcher will choose positivism research philosophy. This is the
great way of investigating the research topic in a logical and critical manner. This type of
research philosophy will help the researcher to analyse the extent to which people can access
high quality of healthcare facility through e-health.
Research approach is another major aspect of research methodology, which is defined
as the plan that comprises of the steps that need to be taken for the sake of completing the
research within the deadline. Research approach can be of two types, such as deductive and
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inductive. Deductive research approach is concerned with existing theories and models, while
inductive research approach is concerned with new theoretical frameworks. In the present
research, the researcher will use the deductive approach, which will help the researcher to
assess existing theories and models related to accessibility of healthcare facility through e-
health.
Research design is one of the most significant aspects of research methodology. This
is the framework in relation to research technique and method, through which a research can
be carried out in a systematic manner. There are three different types of research design,
which include analytical or descriptive, explanatory and exploratory research designs
(Quinlan et al. 2019). In order to get detailed information about the current research topic, the
researcher will choose descriptive research design. With the assistance of this research
design, the researcher will be able to get in-depth idea about the accessibility of healthcare
facility through e-health. In addition, selection of this research design will also help the
researcher to make critical analysis of the subject matter.
Research strategy is also a vital factor of research methodology, which is defined as
the step-by-step plan of the activities, which needs to be carried out by the researcher for the
sake of completing the research properly. Research strategy can be of several types such as
case studies, focus group, survey methods, interview procedure etc. Survey and interview are
the best method for the sake of getting comprehensive information about the research topic
(Humphries 2017). In the current research, both survey and interview will be conducted to
assess the accessibility of healthcare through e-health.
Selection of appropriate sampling technique plays a pivotal role in the way of
strengthening the value of research by integrating relevant information about the subject
matter (Shields 2019). In the present research, the researcher will use both probabilistic and
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non-probabilistic sampling method. The researcher will choose random sampling technique
in order to get detailed information about the credibility of e-health. In the research, top 5
hospitals of Hong Kong will be chosen and its patients will be selected as the sample in order
to carry out the research. Survey on 50 patients will be carried out in order to know about the
healthcare accessibility through mobile devises.
In addition, 5 mangers from 5 different hospitals will be interviewed to know about
how they are using e-health in order to improve the quality of healthcare. For the case of
present research, both primary and secondary data will be collected. In order to collect the
quantitative data, survey will be conducted on 50 patients from top five hospitals of Hong
Kong. In the same way, for the collection of qualitative data, 5 mangers from 5 different
hospitals of Hong Kong will be interviewed. Transcript of the speech of managers will be
prepared in order to analyse the qualitative data. On the other hand, in order to interpret the
quantitative data, MS excel will be used.
4. Research schedule:
Activities 1st to
3rd
Week
4th to
10th
week
11th to
13th
Week
14th to
17th
Week
18th to
21st
Week
22nd
to 23rd
Week
24th
Week
Selection of the
research topic
Collection of data
from secondary
sources
Layout creation
Reviewing the existing
literature
Evaluation and
interpretation of
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collected data
Presentation of
research findings
Conclusion of the
study
Creation of draft
Final submission of
work
Table 1: Proposed schedule of the work
(Source: As created by the author)
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References:
Casado-Vara, R. and Corchado, J., 2019. Distributed e-health wide-world accounting ledger
via blockchain. Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, 36(3), pp.2381-2386.
Farahani, B., Firouzi, F. and Chakrabarty, K., 2020. Healthcare IoT. In Intelligent Internet of
Things (pp. 515-545). Springer, Cham.
Hossain, N., Yokota, F., Sultana, N. and Ahmed, A., 2019. Factors influencing rural end-
users' acceptance of e-health in developing countries: a study on portable health clinic in
bangladesh. Telemedicine and e-Health, 25(3), pp.221-229.
Humphries, B., 2017. Re-thinking social research: anti-discriminatory approaches in
research methodology. Routledge.
Kumar, R., 2019. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage
Publications Limited.
Ledford, J.R. and Gast, D.L., 2018. Single case research methodology: Applications in
special education and behavioral sciences. Routledge.
Lopez, A.M., 2019. Telemedicine, telehealth, and e-health technologies in cancer prevention.
In Fundamentals of Cancer Prevention (pp. 333-352). Springer, Cham.
Lv, Y., Dias, M.P.I., Ruan, L., Wong, E., Feng, Y., Jiang, N. and Qiu, K., 2019. Request-
Based Polling Access: Investigation of Novel Wireless LAN MAC Scheme for Low-Latency
E-Health Applications. IEEE Communications Letters, 23(5), pp.896-899.
Miah, S.J., Hasan, J. and Gammack, J.G., 2017. On-cloud healthcare clinic: an e-health
consultancy approach for remote communities in a developing country. Telematics and
Informatics, 34(1), pp.311-322.
Nymberg, V.M., Bolmsjö, B.B., Wolff, M., Calling, S., Gerward, S. and Sandberg, M., 2019.
‘Having to learn this so late in our lives…’Swedish elderly patients’ beliefs, experiences,
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attitudes and expectations of e-health in primary health care. Scandinavian journal of
primary health care, 37(1), pp.41-52.
Quinlan, C., Babin, B., Carr, J. and Griffin, M., 2019. Business research methods. South
Western Cengage.
Rahmani, A.M., Gia, T.N., Negash, B., Anzanpour, A., Azimi, I., Jiang, M. and Liljeberg, P.,
2018. Exploiting smart e-Health gateways at the edge of healthcare Internet-of-Things: A fog
computing approach. Future Generation Computer Systems, 78, pp.641-658.
Ryan, C. and Kushalnagar, P., 2018. Towards health equity: deaf adults’ engagement in
social e-health activities and e-communication with health care providers. Journal of health
communication, 23(9), pp.836-841.
Shields, M., 2019. Research Methodology and Statistical Methods. Scientific e-Resources.
Stone, L. and Waldron, R., 2019. Great expectations and e-mental health:'The role of literacy
in mediating access to mental healthcare'. Australian journal of general practice, 48(7),
p.474.
Voutsidou, S., Moraitis, E., Sissouras, A., Jelastopulu, E. and Charalampous, G., 2019. E-
health and primary health care: telemedicine in the greek national health system.
International Journal of Recent Scientific Research, 10(8), pp.34320-5.
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