![](bg6.png)
especially with respect to patients. A potential way
to validate the provided ideas is to conduct an expert
workshop as suggested by Gammon et al. (2015).
6 CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK
Due to the identified heterogeneity and uncertainty
regarding the definitions of eHealth and related terms,
the focus was on the provision of a consolidated view
for interdisciplinary studies. Furthermore, this
consolidated view can help to understand and support
quality assessments and facilitate the diffusion of
innovative care concepts into practice.
To reach this aim, a terminological ontology was
created via a two-step procedure. Firstly, the
underlying technological concepts of eHealth and
related terms were identified using an extensive
literature analysis. Secondly, a proposal was made to
extend the ontology and to include care models, by
conducting a literature analysis. Finally, an outlook
was developed describing next steps to validate and
further develop the provided ontology.
All in all, an overview of eHealth, telemedicine,
telehealth, and mHealth as well as related terms could
be provided. Nevertheless, it was found that for some
terms insufficient definitions (e. g. mHealth) and
unclear delimitations are prevalent in the research
community. Especially the connections between tele-
medicine, telehealth, and eHealth need to be clarified.
Systematic reviews for additional terms in the
proposed ontology-extension (Figure 2) should
follow, in order to establish definitions substantiated
by the research community and infer appropriate
relations. Moreover, it needs to be verified if all
adjacent concepts are already represented in the
ontology proposal, as e. g. the term digitization also
possesses a processual character, which possibly
impacts additional concepts.
The presented work is intended to further enhance
discussion and thereby improve the quality of
telemedicine research and innovation. As a result, this
work is a valuable contribution to eHealth research as
it contains theory- and evidence-based knowledge of
the domain terminology. It reveals the importance of a
common terminology and it therefore provides the
foundation for an interdisciplinary understanding.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The work for this paper was funded by the European
Social Fund and the Free State of Saxony (Grant no.
100310385).
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