The advancement in ICT in recent decades has transformed every aspect of life, including medical care. The most sophisticated example of this is electronic health (e-health), which in developed counties has been a major contributor to enhancing the overall quality of healthcare services. However, e-health remains primitive in developing countries, whether they are relatively poor like Jordan or wealthy like Qatar. Barriers to successful e-health adoption in developing countries are attributable either to superimposing the technology itself while ignoring staff preparedness to integrated e-health or financial inhibitions to making such fundamental changes to healthcare delivery. Staff preparedness is related to educating or training healthcare staff, particularly nurses, who have fewer opportunities to attend training, or are sometimes ignored. Hence, the focus of this research is to evaluate the preparedness of nursing community for e-health adaption in the developing countries, taking Qatar and Jordan as case studies, in order to identify existing challenges and the key requirements to establish an educational framework that can be integrated in nursing curricula or professional development to promote e-health adaptation by nurses. This research critically reviews previous literature related to the research project, identifying the challenges to e-health preparedness, and analyses nursing and midwifery curricula from different countries with regard to e-health and ICT. The findings show that e-health modules are not generally included in any higher education nursing programme, with only a few transcripts showing basic computing or ICT modules. E-health national strategies for both Jordan and Qatar were analysed to identify whether the inclusion of professional training on e-health has been considered as part of e-heath strategy. In addition, analysis of e-health national strategies for other leading countries in the field of e-heath was conducted, finding that there is a decided gap between developed and developing countries with regard to e-health. The level of readiness in nursing was investigated and to identify the main barriers for using e-health/e-nursing in Jordan and Qatar. The results showed the top challenges facing e-health are educational-related aspects, hence a plan for promoting and providing education on the benefits and use of ehealth processes and applications is advised, with prerequisite ICT training, as the results showed that nurses lack sufficient knowledge about e-health processes and applications. The findings from earlier tasks were used to identify the requirements and then propose the framework to achieve main goal of this research in providing a roadmap. The framework was constructed in accordance to with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), followed by evaluation by different expert groups. All the groups voted for the suggested structure of the framework to be taken to the next phase of deployment. The final task was to evaluate the attitude of the nursing community working towards the possibility of implementing an e-learning system, which has been presented as the main platform in the proposed framework. The findings have demonstrated a very positive attitude from the nursing staff towards the idea of using e-learning. There also does not appear to be any apparent obstacles to deploying the concept of e-health as the audience in question have the necessary computer skills. In summary, this research project has contributed in presenting framework and some useful findings related to e-health in general and in Qatar and Jordan in particular. The proposed framework can be as a roadmap for future e-heath/e-nursing projects, in addition, it can be utilised with some modifications to foster similar electronic applications.

Background: Previous studies have shown that ICT applications could affect elderly people who suffer from mild dementia (MD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) positively. These applications might help patients with MD or MCI, improving their cognitive performance, independency and, their quality of life. Elderly may also be able to live alone at their own home with the help of these ICT applications. Therefore, the burden of caregivers and family members can be reduced. An IT-enabled solution was proposed to create new knowledge and experience among MCI and MD patients and their caregivers. The project was funded by European union and four countries i.e. Sweden, Spain, Italy and Israel were involved in it. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to apply a technology-enabled integrated care model. Two aspects of the study were to measure the quality of life of the elderly with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild dementia (MD) after using the model and to understand the professional caregivers’ perspectives of the model. Method: A mixed-method approach was applied in this research which was a combination of using standard and internally developed questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Conclusion: The result of the study showed that DECI could have positive effect as a complementary tool for the care process of the elderly who suffered from dementia. The general perception in all sites was positive and professionals confirmed the willingness to use DECI in the future.

The problem of insufficient healthcare is particularly noticeable in rural regions. Despite this, there is still little research on the digital transformation of healthcare in rural areas. This thesis aims to bridge the gap between the two research fields of "digital health” and “rural development” to find out the most significant challenges for rural areas when implementing and using digital health solutions. "Rural areas" in this work are referring to areas with low population density and small settlements in the industrialised EU countries. First of all, a “Digital Health Ecosystem” was developed based on a research review, which served as an overview of the most important factors and stakeholders regarding digital health in general. The “Digital Health Ecosystem” was used as part of the qualitative research method and interview guide to identify the challenges in transferring the overview to rural areas. An interview study was conducted with eight experts from the field of digital health with different backgrounds like technology, economics, social sciences, healthcare systems and smart village. The results show that digital health in general involves many barriers, which also apply to rural areas. The specific challenges for rural areas could be divided into four main categories: broadband and mobile networks; structural barriers; digital acceptance & competence; rural innovation. The findings reveal that the smart village concept and rural initiatives are still in their early stages and digital strategies and networks will have to spread more widely across the entire countries. Furthermore, services must be better targeted to the specific problems of rural communities. In particular, because the need for digital health solutions is very great in rural areas, where they can counteract problems like lack of healthcare providers and poor healthcare. In this context, all the general and specific challenges should not be considered separately, because the complexity of the ecosystem can only be understood by connecting all the different fields of action. / Problemet med otillräcklig sjukvård märks särskilt på landsbygden. Trots detta finns det fortfarande lite forskning om den digitala omvandlingen av sjukvården på landsbygden. Denna rapport syftar till att överbrygga klyftan mellan de två forskningsområdena "digital health" och "rural development" för att ta reda på de viktigaste utmaningarna för landsbygden när de implementerar och använder digitala hälsolösningar. "Landsbygdsområden" avser i detta arbete områden med låg befolkningstäthet och små bosättningar i de industrialiserade EU-länderna. Till att börja med byggdes ett ramverk, “Digital Health Ecosystem”, baserat på en forskningsöversikt. Detta ramverk fungerade som en översikt över de viktigaste faktorerna och intressenterna beträffande digital hälsa i allmänhet. ”Digital Health Ecosystem” användes som en del av den kvalitativa forskningsmetoden och intervjuguiden för att identifiera utmaningarna i överföringen av översikten till landsbygden. En intervjustudie genomfördes med åtta experter inom området digital hälsa med olika bakgrunder som teknik, ekonomi, samhällsvetenskap, hälsovårdssystem och smart by. Resultaten visar att det finns många hinder för digital hälsa i allmänhet, som också gäller för landsbygden. De specifika utmaningarna för landsbygden kan delas in i fyra huvudkategorier: bredbands- och mobilnät; strukturella hinder; digital acceptans & kompetens; landsbygdens innovation. Resultaten visar att det smarta landsbygder och andra typer av liknande initiativ i rurala områden fortfarande befinner sig i sina tidiga stadier och att digitala strategier och nätverk måste spridas mer över hela länderna. Dessutom måste tjänsterna riktas bättre mot de specifika problemen i landsbygdssamhällen. I synnerhet eftersom behovet av digitala sjukvårdslösningar är mycket stort på landsbygden, där de kan motverka problem som brist på vårdgivare och dålig sjukvård. I detta sammanhang bör alla allmänna och specifika utmaningar inte beaktas separat, eftersom ekosystemets komplexitet bara kan förstås genom att koppla samman alla olika handlingsfält.