Background Many countries adopt eHealth applications to support patient-centered care. Through information exchange, these eHealth applications may overcome institutional data silos and support holistic and ubiquitous (regional or national) information logistics. Available eHealth indicators mostly describe usage and acceptance of eHealth in a country. The eHealth indicators focusing on the cross-institutional availability of patient-related information for health care professionals, patients, and care givers are rare. Objectives This study aims to present eHealth indicators on cross-institutional availability of relevant patient data for health care professionals, as well as for patients and their caregivers across 14 countries (Argentina, Australia, Austria, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong as a special administrative region of China, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, South Korea, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States) to compare our indicators and the resulting data for the examined countries with other eHealth benchmarks and to extend and explore changes to a comparable survey in 2017. We defined “availability of patient data” as the ability to access data in and to add data to the patient record in the respective country. Methods The invited experts from each of the 14 countries provided the indicator data for their country to reflect the situation on August 1, 2019, as date of reference. Overall, 60 items were aggregated to six eHealth indicators. Results Availability of patient-related information varies strongly by country. Health care professionals can access patients' most relevant cross-institutional health record data fully in only four countries. Patients and their caregivers can access their health record data fully in only two countries. Patients are able to fully add relevant data only in one country. Finland showed the best outcome of all eHealth indicators, followed by South Korea, Japan, and Sweden. Conclusion Advancement in eHealth depends on contextual factors such as health care organization, national health politics, privacy laws, and health care financing. Improvements in eHealth indicators are thus often slow. However, our survey shows that some countries were able to improve on at least some indicators between 2017 and 2019. We anticipate further improvements in the future.

Aims: To determine the frequency of and the risk factors for readmissions for any lower respiratory tract illness (LRTI) and for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) documented LRTI in children born very prematurely who had or had not received RSV prophylaxis. Methods: Multicentre prospective longitudinal cohort study of 2813 infants, born between April 2000 and December 2000 at less than 33 weeks of gestational age, and followed until the end of the epidemic season. Results: Among the 2256 children who had no bronchopulmonary dysplasia at 36 weeks of postmenstrual age and were not submitted to RSV prophylaxis, 27.4% were readmitted at least once for any reason during the epidemic season; 15.1% and 7.2% were readmitted at least once for any LRTI and RSV related LRTI, respectively. Children born at less than 31 weeks' gestation, having an intrauterine growth restriction, or living in a single mother family were at a significantly higher risk of readmission for LRTI in general as well as for RSV related LRTI. Of the 376 children submitted to prophylaxis, 28.2% were readmitted at least once for any LRTI and 6.1% for RSV related LRTI. Conclusion: One out of four children who had received no prophylaxis, was born very prematurely, and was without bronchopulmonary dysplasia at 36 weeks of postmenstrual age, was readmitted at least once for any reason. Roughly 50% and 20% of these readmissions were related to a LRTI and an RSV infection, respectively. Further epidemiological studies are warranted to assess the aetiology and impact of other respiratory pathogens on post-discharge readmission and respiratory morbidity in this population. C hildren born prematurely, particularly those with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) or who are less than 6 months old at the onset of the epidemic season, are at increased risk of lower respiratory tract illness (LRTI) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease during the first year of life.

The digital revolution will have a profound impact on how physicians and health care delivery organizations interact with patients and the community. Primary pediatric care has been historically known in our setting because pediatricians are widely available for consultations. The rapid development of information and communication technologies and their impact on people's life pose a new challenge for pediatricians in relation to the way they communicate with the families of the patients they see. The objective of this article is to analyze the available channels for communication mediated by information and communication technologies with patients, and to propose recommendations for their adequate use.

y comunicación (TIC) por parte de los pediatras. Objetivos: Estimar la prevalencia de uso de historia clínica electrónica (HCE) y de mensajería electrónica. Describir percepción de ventajas y desventajas. Población y métodos: Estudio observacional, exploratorio, descriptivo y transversal. Se envió una encuesta autoadministrada al padrón de socios de la Sociedad Argentina de Pediatría entre julio y septiembre de 2017. Resultados: De 14 604 socios, se recibieron 3468 respuestas (el 23,7 %); 2680 fueron completas (el 18,4 %). El porcentaje de uso de HCE fue del 44 %. Se destacaron ventajas: acceso a la información (el 23,2 %), agilización del trabajo (el 20,1 %), resguardo seguro de información (el 14,3 %), disponibilidad (el 11,9 %), cálculo de percentiles (el 11,1 %) y realización de estadísticas (el 9,2 %). Las desventajas percibidas fueron cuestiones técnicas (el 32 %), temor a pérdida de información (el 20 %), dudas sobre cuestiones legales (el 15,8 %). El 49,8 % consideró implementar el uso de HCE en el próximo año. El 76,9 % usaba aplicaciones para recibir consultas de sus pacientes. El WhatsApp (el 46,6 %) fue la plataforma más utilizada. El 74 % consideraba que las consultas no presenciales deberían ser remuneradas. Conclusión: El 44 % de los pediatras que respondieron utilizaba HCE. El 49,8 % consideró implementar algún sistema de HCE durante el año siguiente al estudio. La mensajería electrónica era ampliamente utilizada (el 76,9 %) en todos los rangos etarios. Palabras clave: informática médica, mensaje de texto, historia clínica electrónica, encuestas y cuestionarios, tecnología.