The International Development Research Centre's (IDRC's) “Information and Communications Technologies for Development” (ICT4D) program supports research on the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in health systems – often referred to as electronic health or eHealth. Since the late 1990s, IDRC's eHealth research portfolio has been driven by priorities stated by researchers and practitioners from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Specifically, these studies respond to a clear and steady demand for applied research on how the use of ICTs could influence changes in behavior, service delivery, planning and policies at different points and at different levels of a health system. The scope of the studies extended beyond the financial bottom line to include ones that examine varied experiences of integrating eHealth in different health systems contexts. This chapter presents lessons and outcomes from IDRC-supported eHealth projects that helped strengthen the capacities of researchers and research networks, influence policies and practices and shape the body of literature on eHealth from a LMIC perspective.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines eHealth as the use of ICTs for health in order to accomplish a wide variety of tasks, such as treating patients, pursuing research, educating students, tracking diseases and monitoring public health. Although the term “eHealth” is increasingly recognized by many working in the field of health, this was not the case when IDRC's ICT4D program first started supporting projects in the early 1990s. These research projects – based in communities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) – examined a broad range of research questions about the expected and unexpected influences that ICTs have had on health services and health outcomes.