P. Rajasulochana* et al.

/International Journal Of Pharmacy & Technology

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ISSN: 0975-766X
CODEN: IJPTFI
Research Article

INNOVATIVE BUSINESS MODELING TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE E-HEALTH

APPLICATIONS
P. Rajasulochana*, P. Krishnamoorthy**, P. Ramesh Babu#, Rushni Datta***
*Assistant Professor, Dept. of Bioinformatics, Bharath University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
**Dean, School of Bio-Engineering, Bharath University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
# Professor and Head, Dept. of Bioinformatics, Bharath University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
***Student, Dept. of Bioinformatics, Bharath University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Email: prs_nellore@yahoo.com
Received on 09-11-2012
Accepted on 25-11-2012
Abstract
Modern day healthcare is offering more and more treatment alternatives on the Internet, so-called E-Health. In order to
reform the business logic of these organizations from the traditional healthcare services towards more E-Health in their
services, an implementation strategy is needed to guide this reformation. A currently popular approach to guide these
reformations and to come to an eventual implementation is by the use of business models. This paper describes what
business models are and what their potential for designing and implementing E-Health applications can be. Also, three
recent methods of business modeling that aimed to create sustainable E-Health applications have been described as an
example, followed by some potential complications and their corresponding challenges that can appear when working
on a business model for innovative E-Health applications.
Keywords: E-Health; Sustainable; business modeling.
1.0 Introduction
Modern day healthcare is offering more and more treatment alternatives on the Internet, so-called E-Health. In order to
reform the business logic of these organizations from the traditional healthcare services towards more E-Health in their
services, an implementation strategy is needed to guide this reformation. A currently popular approach to guide these
reformations and to come to an eventual implementation is by the use of business models [1-5]. This paper describes
what business models are and what their potential for designing and implementing E-Health applications can be. Also,

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three recent methods of business modeling that aimed to create sustainable E-Health applications will be described as
an example, followed by some potential complications and their corresponding challenges that can appear when
working on a business model or innovative eHealth applications. Business modeling is a method that became more
prominent in organizations since the late 1990s. With the growth of IT and especially the Internet, business activities
changed. These changes did not only happen on a technological level but the Internet also brought other opportunities,
e.g. globalization of the potential customer market and potential market for procurement or also the possibilities to
cooperate with other organizations regardless their physical locations . These innovative business activities made
existing business activities a lot more complex or organizations were not even compatible with the complexity of the
new business activities and therefore required the whole, existing organization to reform to incorporate E-Commerce
and E-Business in a more effective and cost-efficient way.
E-Commerce
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, or e-business consists of the buying and
selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of
trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage. The use of commerce is
conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management,
Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems,
and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at
some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as
well. A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to
premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some
way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big
retailers have electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web. Electronic commerce that is conducted between
businesses is referred to as business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity
exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). Electronic commerce that is
conducted between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This is

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the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.com. Online shopping is a form of
electronic commerce where the buyer is directly online to the seller's computer usually via the internet. There is no
intermediary service. The sale and purchase transaction is completed electronically and interactively in real-time such
as Amazon.com for new books. If an intermediary is present, then the sale and purchase transaction is called electronic
commerce such as eBay.com. Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also
consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of the business transactions.
2.0 Materials and Methods
In this paper, Java, J2EE and Html have been diversely used to develop an e-health application and absolute business
model for that. To ensure the success of the build, software testing also has been done simultaneously.
Software Descriptions
The Java Language
Java is two things: a programming language and a platform.
Java is a high-level programming language that is all of the following:

Simple

Object-oriented

Distributed

Interpreted

Robust

Secure

Architecture-neutral

Portable

High-performance

Multithreaded

Dynamic

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Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)
JDBC and ODBC in Java
Most popular and widely accepted database connectivity called Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is used to access
the relational databases. It offers the ability to connect to almost all the databases on almost all platforms. Java
applications can also use this ODBC to communicate with a database. Then we need JDBC why? There are several
reasons:
ODBC API was completely written in C language and it makes an extensive use of pointers. Calls from Java to
native C code have a number of drawbacks in the security, implementation, robustness and automatic portability of
applications.
ODBC is hard to learn. It mixes simple and advanced features together, and it has complex options even for
simple queries.
ODBC drivers must be installed on clients machine.
Architecture of JDBC:
JDBC Architecture contains three layers:

JDBC Application

JDBC Drivers

JDBC Drivers

Application Layer: Java program wants to get a connection to a database. It needs the information from the database
to display on the screen or to modify the existing data or to insert the data into the table.
Driver Manager: The layer is the backbone of the JDBC architecture. When it receives a connection-request form.

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3.0 Result and Discussion
Using the above methodology, a software package has been developed for on-line health monitoring of the patients.
Some of the typical screen shots are provided below (Figs. 1 to 3). Software has been tested and verified its
applicability and efficiency.

Fig. 1 Screen shot for LOGIN page.

Fig. 2 Screen shot for Personal details

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Patients complete the sign up page and login the E-HEALTH application to send queries to the health care
professionals.

Fig. 3 Screen shot for Patient login

It can be noted that there are multiple business models available and in use, also in eHealth already, mostly ECommerce inspired products and services for now. Certain other fields of business were quicker in adapting to the new
Web 2.0trend than healthcare organizations, which is no necessarily a weakness, but can work in our benefit as well.
Their head start can be used as examples of business model possibilities and as a proof-of-concept that certain ideas
work (for them) that perhaps can also work for eHealth and thus are worthwhile exploring.
4. Conclusion
Research into business models for e-Health is still in its infancy but is gradually becoming more and more
crucial for healthcare organizations. Especially with the upcoming problems such as the obsolescence and rising costs
plus growing demand for healthcare, healthcare organizations shall become more motivated to look into eHealth
alternatives and thus require more insights in business modeling and business models as well. In this direction, an
attempt has been made to develop a software package for E-health applications wherein complete details of patient can

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be fed in and send to professionals to get their advices towards patient problems. This software has been well tested and
found to be efficient.
References
1. A.H.M. van Limburg., 2010. Towards innovative business modeling for sustainable e-Health applications.
Psychology & Communication of Health & Risk University of Twente Enschede, the Netherlands.
2. J. van Gemert-Pijnen., 2010. Towards innovative business modeling for sustainable eHealth applications.
Psychology & Communication of Health & Risk University of Twente Enschede, the Netherlands.
3. Bouwman, Vos, de, Haaker., 2008. Mobile Service Innovation and

business models. Springer, Houten.

4. Eysenbach., 2008. Medicine 2.0: Social networking, collaboration, participation, apomediation and openness.
5. Giesen., 2009. Business models for eHealth and associated best practices. Thesis, University of Twente, Enschede.
Corresponding Author:
P. Rajasulochana*,
Email: prs_nellore@yahoo.com

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