The effect of the pandemics on e-health services in Poland

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present selected issues related to the impact of the pandemic on the universality of e-health services, as well as to show the readiness to use such services by the inhabitants of urban and rural areas in Poland. Several hypotheses are launched regarding the COVID-19 effect in relation to the implementation, use and access to e-health services and the skills needed to use them. The article includes an analysis of the legal and social context accompanying organisational changes in the health care system caused by the presence of the COVID-19 virus, as well as an analysis of the results of quantitative research on the attitude of rural residents to such solutions. Data obtained in a study from the WE Patients Foundation provide some insight into the complexity of factors governing e-health use, showing less differences between city and rural areas than we hypothesised.