Concepts

Big Data in Health refers to large routinely or automatically collected datasets, which are electronically captured and stored. It is reusable in the sense of multipurpose data and comprises the fusion and connection of existing databases for the purpose of improving health and health system performance. It does not refer to data collected for a specific study.

Definition Source
European Commission, Study on Big Data in Public Health, Telemedicine and Healthcare. 2016

Efficient, effective, ethical care delivered through interaction, integration, co-ordination and sharing of information between different healthcare actors over time.

Definition Source
ISO/FDIS 27269

‘Cross-Border Healthcare’ means healthcare provided or prescribed in a Member State other than the Member State of affiliation

Definition Source
Directive 2011/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2011 on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare

‘Digital Health’ is a broad umbrella term encompassing e-health, as well as developing areas such as the use of advanced computer sciences (for example, in the fields of “big data”, genomics and artificial intelligence).

Definition Source
WHO

Digital health literacy (or eHealth literacy) is the ability to seek, find, understand, appraise health information from electronic sources and apply the knowledge gained to addressing or solving a health problem.

Definition Source
Norman, C. D. and Skinner, H. A. (2006a) ‘eHEALS: The eHealth Literacy Scale’, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 8(4)

eHealth is the use of ICT in health products, services and processes combined with organisational change in healthcare systems and new skills, in order to improve health of citizens, efficiency and productivity in healthcare delivery, and the economic and social value of health.

Definition Source
Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – eHealth Action Plan 2012-2020 – Innovative healthcare for the 21st century

The process of using person identification data in electronic form uniquely representing either a natural or legal person, or a natural person representing a legal person.

Definition Source
Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 (eIDAS)

The Commission Recommendation on a European Electronic Health Record exchange format of 6 February 2019 sets out a framework for the development of a European electronic health record exchange format in order to achieve secure, interoperable, cross-border access to, and exchange of, electronic health data in the Union.

Definition Source
Commission Recommendation on a European Electronic Health Record exchange format of 6 February 2019

The creation of a European Data Space is one of the priorities of the Commission 2019-2025, including the health sector. In the Communication on “A European strategy for data” it states that the Commission will support the establishment of nine common European data spaces with one of them being the Common European health data space, which is essential for advances in preventing, detecting and curing diseases as well as for informed, evidence-based decisions to improve the accessibility, effectiveness and sustainability of the healthcare systems.

Definition Source
European Commission, European Health Data Space
European Commission, Communication from 19 February 2020

‘Health Professional’ means a doctor of medicine, a nurse responsible for general care, a dental practitioner, a midwife or a pharmacist within the meaning of Directive 2005/36/EC, or another professional exercising activities in the healthcare sector which are restricted to a regulated profession as defined in Article 3(1)(a) of Directive 2005/36/EC, or a person considered to be a health professional according to the legislation of the Member State of treatment.

Definition Source
Directive 2011/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2011 on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare

Care activities, services, management or supplies related to the health of an individual.

Definition Source
ISO/FDIS 27269

Definition 1: Healthcare actor that is able to be assigned one or more care period mandates
Definition 2: ‘Healthcare Provider’ means any natural or legal person or any other entity legally providing healthcare on the territory of a Member State;

Definition Source
Definition 1: ISO 13940:2015, 5.2.3
Definition 2: Directive 2011/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2011 on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare

Minimal, non-exhaustive set of data elements required for the international patient summary.

Definition Source
ISO/FDIS 27269, 3.8.3.3

mHealth includes the use of mobile communication devices in health and well-being services covering various technological solutions, which support self-management and measure vital signs such as heart rate, blood glucose level, blood pressure, body temperature and brain activity. WHO defines mHealth as “medical and public health practice supported by devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, personal digital assistants, and other wireless devices.

Definition Source
WHO

Health record extract comprising a standardized collection of clinical and contextual information (retrospective, concurrent, prospective) that provides a snapshot in time of a subject of care’s health information and healthcare.

Definition Source
ISO/FDIS 27269, 3.8.1.1

Location where direct healthcare activities are performed.

Definition Source
ISO 13940:2015, 7.2.9.1

The refined eHealth European interoperability framework (ReEIF) was adopted by the eHealth Network in November 2015. It represents a common refined framework for managing interoperability and standardisation challenges in the eHealth domain in Europe, offering a framework of terms and methodologies for reaching a common language, and a common starting point for the analysis of problems and the description of eHealth solutions throughout Europe.

Definition Source
eHealth Network – Refined eHealth European Interoperability Framework

Telehealth is a subset of eHealth and refers to the delivery of healthcare at a distance – according to Greek language, prefix “tele” means “far” or “at distance”, as explained by Varnosafaderani.
It comprehends the delivery of healthcare services by all healthcare professionals, where distance is a critical factor, through the use of ICT to provide clinical and non-clinical services – preventative, promotive and curative healthcare services, research and evaluation, health administration services and continuing education of healthcare providers.
Telehealth is a newer and broader term referring to remote healthcare, including services provided using telemedicine, as well as interaction with automated systems or information resources.

Definition Source
1) Varnosafaderani, Siamak R. 2013. The Impact of Ultra-Fast Broadband on Telehealth in New Zealand;
2) Oh, H.; Rizo, C.; Enkin, M.; & Jadad, A. 2005. What Is eHealth (3): A Systematic Review of Published Definitions. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 7(1), e1;
3) European Commission. Chain of Trust. 2013. Understanding patients’ and health professionals’ perspective on telehealth and building confidence and acceptance;
4) US Department of Health and Human Services.

Telemedicine is a subset of telehealth, as concluded by Sood et al. in a 2007 study after analyzing 104 peer-reviewed definitions of telemedicine. Although some authors inadequately use it to describe the delivery of healthcare services at a distance only by physicians, telemedicine is distinguished from telehealth in the sense that the former focuses on the curative scope of the healthcare services by all healthcare professionals, excluding therefore the preventive and promotive aspects of healthcare as remote training, administrative and educational services.
According to Bashshur, Telemedicine involves the use of modern information technology, especially two-way interactive audio/video communications, computers and telemetry to deliver health services to remote patients and to facilitate information exchange between primary care physicians and specialists at some distance from each other (Bashshur, et al., 1997).

Definition Source
1) Dyk, Liezl van. 2014. A Review of Telehealth Service Implementation Frameworks. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 11, 1279-1298;
2) Sood, S.; Mbarika, V.; Jugoo, S.; Dookhy, R.; Doarn, C.R.; Prakash, N. 2007. What is telemedicine? A collection of 104 peer-reviewed perspectives and theoretical underpinnings. Telemed. e-Health 2007, 13, 573–590

Healthcare service for an unexpected demand for care.

Definition Source
ISO/FDIS 27269