An agenda for action on global e-health

Use of e-health, or electronic information technologies, has spread to cities and remote villages worldwide. Countries such as Rwanda are activating nationwide e-health networks. The Rockefeller Foundation's month-long 2008 conference Making the eHealth Connection: Global Partners, Local Solutions accelerated this process. Conference participants proposed global partnerships, health technology solutions based on local needs, cross-border interoperability, leveraging current open-source networks, and shared informatics systems; they achieved progress on a shared, cross-border understanding of e-health solutions and policy. Early steps toward furthering these goals include creation of a new organization, the mHealth Alliance, to coordinate efforts, but collaborative investments are needed to usher in the promise of e-health.