Examining accountability in e-health platforms in Stockholm

Sammanfattning: Technology has supported the progression of several areas of society and its application extends even within government. More societies and local governments around the world are putting the capabilities of new technologies to use to improve the way they govern and deliver services to citizens. This has effectively changed the relationship between citizens and their elected officials. As government operations become increasingly digital it is important that aspects of good governance do not get lost along the way.The notion of accountability in democracies is often linked to the idea of good governance. Good governance requires that authorities within democratic societies are answerable to their subjects or constituents with every decision they make on their behalfThis exploratory study examines how accountability is being upheld within e-government services today with the focus on e-health. The study makes use of Boven’s framework for assessing public accountability to evaluate e-health platforms available to citizens of the city of Stockholm. The results of the study indicate that while most e-government platforms communicate the possibility for adjustment in conduct, there is little indication that adjustment in behavior or processes is made as a result of influence from the users (citizens). The results also show that information on accountable actors is not readily available to users of e-government platforms.