E-health in China: challenges, initial directions, and experience.

China started to pay more attention to the construction of a regional and national health information network after the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003. The construction of a public health system is considered the most important part of national medical reform, with information and computer technology serving as the key to deploying regional collaborative medical service, also known as e-health. In this paper, we analyze the difficulties in carrying out e-health projects in China, a discussion of ongoing projects, and a case presentation representing current progress.