This study adopts a public value perspective to examine the eHealth services deployed by national and regional governments to contain the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, including symptoms checkers, information portals and contact-tracing applications. We analyse 50 cases of eHealth applications adopted in 25 European Economic Area (EEA) and outline how these systems and technologies map against four dimensions of public value: user orientation, participation, legality and equity. Our findings reveal that the public value of the eHealth applications adopted in the context of the current pandemic is affected by both endogenous and exogenous factors that undermine their ability to improve the quality of healthcare services and social wellbeing. We conclude by suggesting areas for further research to address such factors and the trade-offs emerging between different dimensions of public value.

本研究采用公共价值视角来检查国家和地区政府为遏制冠状病毒 (Covid-19) 大流行而部署的电子医疗服务，包括症状检查器、信息门户和接触者追踪应用程序。我们分析了 25 个欧洲经济区 (EEA) 采用的 50 个电子健康应用案例，并概述了这些系统和技术如何映射公共价值的四个维度：用户导向、参与、合法性和公平性. 我们的研究结果表明，在当前大流行的背景下采用的电子健康应用程序的公共价值受到内源性和外源性因素的影响，这些因素削弱了它们提高医疗保健服务质量和社会福祉的能力。最后，我们建议进一步研究的领域，以解决这些因素以及公共价值不同维度之间出现的权衡。