E-business in health care: does it contribute to strengthen consumer interest?

One of the goals of the reforms in the European health-care systems over the last two decades has been to make the health-care system more demand-oriented. There is not much known about the possible impact of E-business like approaches on this goal. This paper describes the concept of E-business. Two cases are introduced to illustrate the use of a simple E-business approach in a health-care setting. On the basis of these case studies, we aspect a reduction of the information disadvantages of patients. In our analysis, we also apply new institutional economy concepts, namely agency theory and transaction costs economics to focus on the position of the patient. Concluded is that it is more probable that preferences of demanders are answered by the suppliers of health care.