From electronic gadgets to better health: where is the knowledge?

A call for papers for the BMJ theme issue on eHealth applications

Over the past decade, we have been exposed to an unprecedented number of information and communication technologies that have promised to affect health care. We have witnessed the breathtaking expansion of the internet and the launch of numerous personal electronic assistants, with smart phones and wireless personal organisers leading the pack. Most high income countries have allocated substantial resources to integrating electronic health information systems and many of their citizens now have access to the internet.

During the same decade some disturbing changes took place. Most “dot com” companies rose and fell, leaving their promises for radical change unfulfilled. In the countries with the requisite tools and the infrastructure, doctors continued …