On the ambiguity of Quality of Service and Quality of Experience requirements for eHealth services

The use of end-to-end communication systems as a medium of delivery for electronic healthcare (eHealth) services is considered to be uncertain, with respect to its reliability leading to hesitation in acceptance of such services. There exist different influential dimensions that pose stringent requirements on end-to-end communication systems, influence user perception and might hinder user acceptance. The later is referred to as Quality of Experience (QoE), which among others depends on the Quality of Service (QoS) of the end-to-end communication system. QoE is considered as a key component determining user acceptance. This paper identifies and analyzes characteristics of a set of eHealth services and the influential dimensions resulting in different QoS requirements and potential impact of QoS on QoE. It highlights the role of QoS and QoE for acceptance of these services. The issue of non-uniform views regarding QoS parameter specifications and related requirements, clinically acceptable thresholds and their qualitative representation in eHealth literature is reviewed and presented.