Advances in telecommunication and online service solutions help to bridge the digital divide between
rural and urban
healthcare
services, enabling provision of suitable medical diagnosis and treatment consultations. Although applying e-
health solutions has brought some positive impact full potential has not yet been realised, especially in regions where expertise is scarce. In this study we develop and evaluate an e-
health consultancy system utilizing cloud computing (we so called “On-Cloud Healthcare Clinic”) that enables doctors and
healthcare workers to identify and treat non-communicable diseases in
rural and remote communities in Bangladesh, a developing nation.
Adopting a design science research approach we developed the solution based around stakeholders’ collaborative participation in prototyping and then evaluated the design using focus groups. The cloud-based solution supports doctors in evaluating and diagnosing patients’ data and medical history through intermediary health care workers or community clinics. The design also knowledgeably allows informed decisions on a course of treatment with follow up for remote or underserved communities. Previously unavailable clinical work is thus practically achieved through utilization of the cloud based e-health system, and generalisation of this approach in healthcare management is discussed.