THE EFFICACY OF THE M-HEALTH PARADIGM: INCORPORATING TECHNOLOGICAL, ORGANISATIONAL AND MANAGERIAL PERSPECTIVES

Technology strongly influences the way we work and is creating opportunities and new demands for a range of different approaches to telehealth (Feldman and Gainey, 1997). Telecommunications have evolved and have been accompanied by an evolution in attitudes to information and communications technologies (Stanworth, 1998). Previously, only companies owned computers and it was the IT specialists, rather than ordinary users, who determined their use and application. Today's response to technological change is profoundly different. On average, around 1 in 4 European households already owns a personal computer; in some countries this rises to more than 50 % and in some local communities it is even higher. A recent study confirms this trend and predicts that, in two years time, it is expected that the use of information communication technology will increase markedly (Marien, 1989). The ease with which we use them and the take-up of remote working in the European Union continues at a rapid pace. Recent estimates (European Telework Organization, 1999) show that approximately 6.7 million Europeans (4.5 % of the workforce) were practising remote working in one form or another at the beginning of 1999. Social, cultural, economic and regulatory factors determine how we organise our business, our work and, hence, our lives (Stanworth, 1998). Technology-led change opens up opportunities for new working methods in three main ways: allowing existing activities to be carried out more rapidly, with more consistency and at a lower cost than could previously be achieved