The Impact of Technological Innovation on Cloud Computing as an Emerging Phenomenon within the South African Healthcare Environment

Abstract The use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for health (eHealth) has become more pervasive than ever, globally. In South Africa, the eHealth initiatives may be hampered by persistent reliance on traditional, disparate and unreliable ICT platforms. This includes the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) initiative to provide universal healthcare supported by eHealth. This research study was undertaken to leverage eHealth and propose a conceptual cloud computing model to form the basis of improving healthcare service delivery. The aim of this research study was to describe the challenges and solutions associated with enabling cloud computing ecosystems within the South African healthcare environment. The findings attest that the Health Information System (HIS) is not meeting the requirements to strengthen healthcare system effectiveness. A key concern is a lack of well‐coordinated regulatory frameworks for proper governance of eHealth standards implementation.