Dear Colleagues,

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE or lupus) is a chronic autoimmune disease with acute periodic flare-ups of symptoms impacting any organ system and resulting in potentially life-threatening complications. In addition to being associated with high health-care costs and significant productivity loss, symptoms, side effects, and complications of SLE can lead to significant functional and emotional challenges. Patients often experience various psychological symptoms, including anxiety, depression, mood disorders, and decreased health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Studies have found that SLE affects all areas that are considered essential for quality of life, including alertness, behavior, recreation/pastime, sleep and rest, home management, social interaction, and emotional balance. Certain groups within the United States, such as women and racial/ethnic minorities, are more severely impacted by lupus, and this negatively affects their quality of life and coping ability and is associated with high-cost service utilization.  

Healthcare invites manuscript submissions related to the improvement of quality of life of lupus patients. All manuscripts should be submitted online using the submission site by 22 March 2022. All submissions will undergo a rigorous peer review. We encourage submissions of original research articles, reviews, and perspectives.

Suggested topic areas include, among others:

• Disease management and healthcare resource approaches
• Treatment adherence and quality of life outcomes
• Strategies to reduce cost burden for patients with severe flares and more major organ involvement
• Recommendations for racial and ethnic minorities, the poor, and those lacking medical insurance and/or education

• Interventions to address the impacts of:
• inpatient hospitalizations
• long disease duration
• high disease activity and damage
• poor physical and mental health
• low education and employment levels

Visit the Healthcare website to learn more, read past issues, and view author submission guidelines.

Prof. Dr. Edith Williams
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Healthcare 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 2700 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.