# Abstract Use of e-health, or electronic information technologies, has spread to cities and remote villages worldwide. Countries such as Rwanda are activating nationwide e-health networks. The Rockefeller Foundation’s month-long 2008 conference Making the eHealth Connection: Global Partners, Local Solutions accelerated this process. Conference participants proposed global partnerships, health technology solutions based on local needs, cross-border interoperability, leveraging current open-source networks, and shared informatics systems; they achieved progress on a shared, cross-border understanding of e-health solutions and policy. Early steps toward furthering these goals include creation of a new organization, the mHealth Alliance, to coordinate efforts, but collaborative investments are needed to usher in the promise of e-health. # Call to action 1. Timely, consensus-based global agenda setting 2. A rational policy process for e-health 3. Adequate and coordinated funding to build e-health systems 4. Fostering collaborative networks and action platforms 5. Knowledge sharing and capacity building 6. Interoperable e-health demonstration projects. # Recommendation Specific recommendations about what must be done across countries and by those involved in e-health include the following: (1) documenting the impact on access to, affordability of, and quality of health services; (2) keeping in mind that the ultimate goal of ehealth should be to strengthen health systems and improve people’s health; (3) supporting collaboration and innovation across resourceconstrained countries and learning between developing countries; (4) reducing donor fragmentation and harmonizing donor requirements and reporting; (5) developing the information and communications technology “business case” to increase donors’ and stakeholders’ involvement; (6) strengthening stakeholder collaboration; and (7) providing funding for pilot projects and adequate evaluation. To achieve these goals, conference participants recommended several strategies to address common e-health policy and organizational, technical, legal, financing, and sustainability challenges, as follows. 1. GLOBAL E-HEALTH CONVENTION: developing an overarching legal and regulatory framework for e-health, initially targeting interoperability issues and cross-border provision of e-health services through discussions and meetings of global e-health subject matter experts 2. GLOBAL E-HEALTH ENTREPRENEUR COMMONS: Designing a global e-health "commons," which would train e-health entrepreneurs, vet potential projects, and incubate and accelerate fundable business plans; creating an e-health promotion network to support financing among e-health entrepreneurs and donors. 3. EMR TOOLKITS AND TRAINING: Creating and fostering support for local electronic record training and capacity building 4. UNIVERSITY-BASED INFORMATICS NETWORKS: Creating a network of regional heatlh informatics centers in resource-constrained countries, which includes collaboration among universities in the developing and developed worlds.