Wearable and Implantable Medical Devices Security and Privacy

Dear Colleagues,

The recent advancement of various physical, chemical and biological sensor technologies together with low-power and high-speed electronics have enabled wearable medical devices with the capabilities that were once the prerogative of the healthcare providers in a clinical setting. These wearable sensors can detect several physiological data continuously either in a non-invasive or in a minimally invasive manner and are worn by an individual in the form of glasses, jewelry, wristwatches, fitness bands, straps, and patches, among others, for real-time health monitoring. Extended applications include health monitoring from a smartphone app. The medical data can range from heartbeat, activity level, and sleep patterns to even heart rhythms via wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) devices and implanted cardiac pacemakers. Independently or in conjunction with data collected from other point-of-care medical diagnostic devices, inferences can be made of an individual’s overall health. The worn or implanted devices are usually connected to a smartphone app via wireless for real-time data collection, storage, and control. The collected data are most often stored in clouds and sometimes transmitted via wireless to the individual’s healthcare provider for further monitoring, analysis, and clinical decision making.

Although wearable or implantable continuous health monitoring is a promising and efficient technology to manage one’s individual health in real-time and without the direct involvement of a healthcare provider, the system is vulnerable to security threats. This is primarily because the transmitted data via wireless are most often not encrypted primarily due to the energy overhead from hardware implementation. Data encryption is often looked into to improve the operational efficiency of the wearable/implantable device, and the absence of stricter government regulatory guidelines makes it worse. Further, due to the involvement of multiple third-party vendors in a market which is not widely regulated, data privacy becomes a questionable issue.

Dr. Soumyasanta Laha
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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.