E-health readiness assessment: promoting "hope" in the health-care institutions of Pakistan.

e-Health readiness refers to the preparedness of health-care institutions to implement programmes that involve use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in provision and management of health services. Level of readiness depends on a number of factors that lead to success or failure of e-health programmes, and thus increase or decrease hope of achieving the desired results. This report presents results from in-depth interviews conducted during a larger study and presents views of managers and health-care providers from various institutions in Pakistan about the usefulness of e-health readiness assessment tools. Participants emphasized the need for implementing e-health programmes in the country, while appreciating the need for readiness assessment tools, and the way these tools could avoid failures related to implementation of e-health programmes. Participants also linked e-health readiness with the process of change management, essential for sustainable implementation of e-health programmes in the health-care institutions of developing countries.