Marzuki Nuraidah, Ismail Saimy, Al-Sadat Nabilla, Ehsan Fauziah Z, Chan Chee-Khoon, Ng Chiu-Wan
Telehealth Division, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Putrajaya, Malaysia Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Asia Pac J Public Health. 2015 Nov;27(8 Suppl):86S-93S. doi: 10.1177/1010539515590180. Epub 2015 Jun 17.
Despite the high costs involved and the lack of definitive evidence of sustained effectiveness, many low- and middle-income countries had begun to strengthen their health information system using information and communication technology in the past few decades. Following this international trend, the Malaysian Ministry of Health had been incorporating Telehealth (National Telehealth initiatives) into national health policies since the 1990s. Employing qualitative approaches, including key informant interviews and document review, this study examines the agenda-setting processes of the Telehealth policy using Kingdon's framework. The findings suggested that Telehealth policies emerged through actions of policy entrepreneurs within the Ministry of Health, who took advantage of several simultaneously occurring opportunities--official recognition of problems within the existing health information system, availability of information and communication technology to strengthen health information system and political interests surrounding the national Multimedia Super Corridor initiative being developed at the time. The last was achieved by the inclusion of Telehealth as a component of the Multimedia Super Corridor.
