Customer expectation of e-health systems in Brunei Darussalam

This study seeks to determine the dimension of e-health services in Brunei Darussalam from the customer's perspective. The study seeks to identify, understand, analyze, and evaluate the public's expectation of e-health in Brunei Darussalam. A questionnaire was designed to gather quantitative and qualitative data to survey patients, the patient's family, and health practitioners at hospitals, clinics, or home care centers in Brunei Darussalam from February to March 2011. A 25-item Likert-type survey instrument was specifically developed for this study and administered to a sample of 366 patients. These data were analyzed to provide initial ideas and recommendations to policy makers on how to move forward with the e-health initiative as a means to improve health care services. The survey revealed that there is a high demand and expectation from people of Brunei to have better health care services through an e-health system in order to improve health literacy as well as quality and efficiency of health care. Regardless of the limitations of the survey, the general public has responded to the questionnaire with great support for the abilities of an e-health system. The results of the survey provide a solid foundation for our ongoing research project to proceed further to develop the model of e-health and subsequently to develop a system prototype that incorporates expectations from patients.