Adoption of E-Health Services from the User’s Perspective: Identification of the relevant Determinants of Adoption to benefit from the Promises

The purpose of this paper is to construct a conceptual framework for the adoption decision ofpotential users in the field of electronic health services including the relevant determinants,sources of information aimed at reducing uncertainty about the innovation and the barriersthat inhibit the adoption. So far, adoption research has widely ignored the healthcare sector.Consequently, no comprehensive studies on adoption decision processes yet exist. Using asemi-structured field manual, we interviewed 15 experts from the business, academic andpublic health sector. In addition to its comprehensiveness, our study specially highlights theparticularities of this process that are associated with health services, the involvement of multipledecision-makers, and the ambivalent role presented by the attending physician (wherepresent).