1. Insufficient awareness regarding the role of medical informatics and e-health in the advancement of healthcare services persists.
Concerns abound regarding the potential misalignment between supply and demand, whereby barriers to patient acceptance and utilization of e-health applications contribute to investment failures by healthcare providers25-26. Many e-health initiatives encounter challenges in finding their niche in the market and sustaining demand among the target audience27 . This predicament, which entails higher investments and risks compared to traditional diagnostic and treatment elements, represents a prevalent issue in e-health applications28 .
Multiple factors contribute to the inadequate adoption of e-health initiatives by patient groups. These factors include patients’ limited awareness of e-appointment services, prevailing underappreciation of novel online services among the majority of patients, incongruity between telemedicine services and patients’ preferences for verbal communication, as well as certain technical limitations associated with the provided service29 .
It comes as no surprise that physicians frequently harbor uncertainties regarding the quality of e-health applications and face challenges in determining which ones to recommend to their patients30 . This finding underscores the imperative for a more patient-centered and personalized approach to e-health, one that considers individual needs and tailors practices accordingly31 .