Regulating pervasive e-health services

Abstract

While the development of pervasive e-health services is experiencing growth in many countries worldwide, existing regulatory regimes are ill-equipped for dealing with them. In this chapter, we investigate institutional regulatory factors that can impact pervasive e-health services. These factors are important as they can shape both the nature of these services and their diffusion trajectory. We argue that coregulation, a mixture of direct monitoring and intervention of regulators through legislation and complete industry self-regulation, can be an effective approach for regulating the pervasive e-health services industry. Given the complex and dynamic nature of this industry, coregulation can minimize monitoring costs and enhance compliance.