Digital Health and Sensory-Cognitive Aging: Evaluation Approaches and Co-Design for Inclusive Innovation
A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Neural Engineering, Neuroergonomics and Neurorobotics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2026 | Viewed by 167
Special Issue Editors
2. Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Interests: ageing; long-term care health; technology; sensory loss; rehabilitation
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Digital technologies are transforming the landscape of health and care for older adults, presenting new opportunities to enhance quality of life, promote independence, and address the challenges of an aging population, including those with sensory-cognitive impairments, such as dementia, hearing, or vision loss. Yet, the success of digital health innovations depends not only on technological advances but also on rigorous evaluation and meaningful collaboration with older adults, caregivers, and health professionals throughout the design and implementation process.
This Special Issue invites original research, theoretical contributions, and case studies that critically examine how evaluation approaches and co‑design methodologies can optimize digital health interventions for aging populations, with particular focus on those with sensory-cognitive challenges. We seek interdisciplinary perspectives that integrate health sciences, human‑computer interaction, gerontology, and social sciences to explore how technology can be developed and assessed in ethically sound, equitable, and contextually sensitive ways.
Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
- Frameworks and methodologies for evaluating digital health interventions for older adults, including those with sensory-cognitive challenges.
- Co‑design, participatory design, and citizen science approaches in technology development.
- User experience, accessibility, and usability studies among aging populations, including those with sensory-cognitive challenges.
- Ethical and equity considerations in digital health evaluation.
- Longitudinal and real‑world assessment of digital interventions in community or clinical settings.
- Integration of AI, wearables, and remote monitoring within aging‑in‑place initiatives.
- Policy, governance, and social implications of digital health innovations for older adults.
Dr. Atul Jaiswal
Dr. Shikha Gupta
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- digital technologies
- artificial intelligence
- wearables
- human-computer interaction
- older adults
- aging
- sensory loss
- sensory-cognitive impairments
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