HICT and Access to Health Care

HICT use has the potential to improve Access, for example, by providing im­proved patient appointment scheduling and electronic medical and health reference information for healthcare professionals. The goal of this work is to understand how Healthcare Information and Communication Technologies (HICTs) are applied to healthcare delivery to improve people's access to healthcare services in a developing country using Thailand as an example. Fundamentally, this work involves multiple levels of healthcare including tertiary care, secondary care, and primary care; with multiple roles of healthcare professionals across nine healthcare organizations. The design of this work was a qualitative approach using embedded case studies and the study aims at understanding the use of HICT-related interventions across stakeholders, across multiple levels of care, and across the defined five probes of Access, which are Transportation to Healthcare Facilities, Patients' Waiting Time, Referrals, Availability of Medication, and Access to Medical and Health Reference Information, respectively. This book is aimed at professionals like physicians, nurses, pharmacists, IT professionals, as well as those who are planning to use HICT in healthcare setting, especially in developing countries.