Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40522718›Full record

ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2025

Multidisciplinary Contributions and Research Trends in eHealth Scholarship (2000-2024): Bibliometric Analysis.

Lana V Ivanitskaya, Dimitrios Zikos, Elina Erzikova

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Lana V IvanitskayaHealth Administration Division, School of Health Sciences, The Herbert H and Grace A Dow College of Health Professions, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-4138-6646
Dimitrios Zikos *Department of Healthcare Management and Leadership, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-2951-4350
Elina Erzikova *School of Communication, Journalism and Media, College of the Arts and Media, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-2013-3543

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundFueled by innovations in technology and health interventions to promote, restore, and maintain health and safeguard well-being, the field of eHealth has yielded significant scholarly output over the past 25 years.

objectiveThis study aims to offer a big picture of research developments and multidisciplinary contributions to eHealth that shaped this field up to 2024. To that end, we analyze evidence from 3 corpora: 10,022 OpenAlex documents with eHealth in the title, the 5000 most relevant eHealth articles according to the Web of Science (WoS) algorithm, and all available (n=1885) WoS eHealth reviews.

methodsUsing VOSviewer, we built co-occurrence networks for WoS keywords and OpenAlex concepts. We examined clusters, categorized terminology, and added custom overlays about eHealth technologies, stakeholders, and objectives. A cocitation map of sources referenced in WoS reviews helped identify scientific fields supporting eHealth. After synthesizing eHealth terminology, we proceeded to build a conceptual model of eHealth scholarship grounded in bibliometric evidence.

resultsSeveral research directions emerged from bibliometric networks: eHealth studies on self-management and interventions, especially in mental health; telemedicine, telehealth, and technology acceptance; privacy, security, and design concerns; health information consumers' literacy; health promotion and prevention; mHealth and digital health; and HIV prevention. Conducted at the individual, health system, community, and society levels, eHealth studies focused on health and wellness across the human lifespan. Keywords such as internet (mean publication year 2017), telemedicine (2018), telehealth (2018), mHealth (2019), mobile health (2020), and digital health (2021) were strongly linked to literature indexed with eHealth (2019). Different types of eHealth apps were supported by research on infrastructures: networks, data exchange, computing technologies, information systems, and platforms. Researchers' concerns for eHealth data security and privacy, including advanced access control and encryption methods, featured prominently in the maps, along with terminology related to health analytics. Review authors cited a wide range of medical sources and journals specific to eHealth technologies, as well as journals in psychology, psychiatry, public health, policy, education, health communication, and other fields. The Journal of Medical Internet Research stood out as the most cited source. The concept map showed a prominent role of political science and law, economics, nursing, business, and knowledge management. Our empirically derived conceptual model of eHealth scholarship incorporated commonly researched stakeholder groups, eHealth application types, supporting infrastructure, health analytics concepts, and outcomes.

conclusionsDrawing upon contributions from many disciplines, the field of eHealth has evolved from early studies of internet-enabled communications, telemedicine, and telehealth to research on mobile health and emerging digital health technologies serving diverse stakeholders. Digital health has become a popular alternative term to eHealth. We offered practical implications and recommendations on future research directions, as well as guidance on study design and publication.

Indexed as

BibliometricsTelemedicineHumansAIappapplicationartificial intelligencebibliometric analysisconceptual modeldigitaldigital healthdigital interventiondigital technologyeHealthelectronic healthmHealthmobile applicationmobile healthremote consultationsmartphonetelehealthtelemedicinevirtual carevirtual healthvirtual medicineVOSviewer

Identifiers

PMID40522718
PMCPMC12209731

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.