Supporting policy definition in the e-health domain: a QCA based method

eHealth is broadly considered as a promising strategy to improve the economic sustainability and quality of the healthcare service provision in Europe. Nevertheless, despite the enthusiastic declarations of eHealth potential, the adoption of IT in health care has progressed very slowly. A critical factor, not deeply addressed in literature, is related to the process of prioritization of the eHealth solution to adopt, in presence of financial constrains, external and internal pressure from a wide range of heterogeneous stakeholders, and conflicting information on different technological solutions. In this paper we introduce a method supporting policy definition in the eHealth domain. This method is based on a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of best practices and previous experiences performed through the lens of an analytic framework whose dimensions and categories are well situated in the eHealth context. This method could support policy-makers in the identification of the properties and characteristics of innovative projects at European level and to analyze the gap between the international scenario and the local context in order to understand trends and dynamics of development, to evaluate the best opportunities for innovation and, therefore, to assign priorities for the next investments by respecting the constraints of available resources.