Covid-19 impact on health information technology: the rapid rise of e-Health and Big Data driven innovation of healthcare processes

The coronavirus disease pandemic which broke out in 2019 heavily affected world wide health systems which found themselves unprepared for managing this wide-ranging event and were therefore forced to reorganize and review the entire system management. In this scenario, the use of information technology in health has played a fundamental role; in fact, e-Health, which indicates all the information and communication technologies (ICT) supporting the health system, has allowed not only the continuation of activities otherwise not executable, but has also left a strong legacy both to the health system in terms of improvements in efficiency and effectiveness and towards the health of the citizen. Covid-19 has pushed towards a rapid growth of e-Health by modifying the operation of the health system, deeply changing the vision of management processes, and favoring data digitization from which meaningful information and insights can be extracted. The aim of this article is to analyze the impact of Covid on the acceleration of the digital transformation of the healthcare system, the innovative processes, the tools used and the best adapted Big Data techniques.