ehealth research in Southeast Asia: Bibliometric Analysis (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND eHealth or digital health innovations expanded tremendously during the COVID-19 pandemic. Innovation and digitalization offer creative solutions to build up a healthy society. The eHealth technologies are quickly taken up by the Southeast Asia countries and continue to flourish to alleviate the burden of healthcare challenges. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to document the size, growth trajectory, and geographical distribution of eHealth in Southeast Asia research, identify high-impact authors and documents, explore the intellectual knowledge structure, and analyze the topical trends of the field. METHODS The bibliometric analysis was used to analyze a data set of 1405 Scopus-indexed documents between 1976 and 2021. Descriptive analysis, citation, co-citation, and keyword co-occurrence analyses were conducted to gain insights into eHealth in the Southeast Asia knowledge base. RESULTS The growth rate of literature rocketed up since 2018, reflecting the significant increase in demand for eHealth in Southeast Asia. Among the eleven Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand were the top four countries where most eHealth-related research was conducted. The intellectual structure of eHealth in Southeast Asia literature comprises of four schools of thought (i.e., four groups of similar theoretical perspectives and research interests): 1) analysis and adoption of hospital information system/eHealth records, 2) user intention and acceptance of information technology, 3) technology for healthcare and disease management, and 4) mobile health technology (m-Health). Mobile application, social network, COVID-19 pandemic, patient referral, follow-up, self-care, quality of life, psychology, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension are the recent emerging research themes in the field of study. CONCLUSIONS The eHealth development should consider long-term sustainable management along with the rapid evolution of the field. Besides, the eHealth systems should be holistic and pay attention to technology adoption, data security, and ethical issues involved in medical practices.