A Proposed General Framework for Iran's E-Health Strategic Plan

Although e-health is a global phenomenon, but many countries around the world are still in the early stages of using e-health. The aim of this study was to provide a framework of strategic electronic health plan for the country.

The type of study is a qualitative-applied and the research community included the existing strategic plan and the frameworks provided by international organizations such as the World Health Organization, and ITU; and also, the country's top-level and strategic documents.
To obtain the proposed framework of the country's e-health strategic plan, which includes vision, dimensions; components; and indicators through data grounded theory; reviewing literature; and questioning of fifteen experts who had important responsibilities at the level of senior managers of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education. The questioning was performed two times: first through brainstorming to study their views on the vision of the eHealth strategic plan, and then using an open-ended questionnaire to collect their opinions about the subsets of the strategic plan, including dimensions; components; indicators.

Iran's e-health strategic plan should include three areas of prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. It seems that the most appropriate duration of the plan is five years. Formation of a surveillance committee with three working groups: strategic, stakeholder representatives, as well as consultants and experts with the specified tasks will ensure the success and continuity of the e-health strategic plan in the country.

Determining the e-health strategic plan for the country is one of the main necessities of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education in order to reduce the financial burden of providing public health, especially by spreading the culture of self-care and health literacy, to make effective progress in achieving health justice.