Challenging interoperability and bandwidth issues in national e-Health strategies by a bottom-up approach: Establishing a performant IT infrastructure network in a Middle East State

Abstract

Most developed countries get into an "integration bottleneck" when they try to establish a homogeneous e-Health network infrastructure providing high bandwidth for future uses of telemedicine as well as a common ground for effective interoperability. While in that case the challenge lies in the alignment existing infrastructures, in case of an emerging country we face the chance of building network systems bottomup so that they provide high bandwidth and interoperability enhancers from the very beginning. The paper discusses the actual requirements of a case study (a Middle East state with 1 million inhabitants), discusses the design of such a health network infrastructure and explains the actual chosen design in detail. As a result we face the interesting symptom that an emerging "infrastructure weak" nation can use this as an advantage on its roadmap towards an IT integrated health system.