Digital Therapeutics in Healthcare

Dear Colleagues,

Digital transformation in healthcare has observed an emergence of digital therapeutics (DTx, mobile medical apps, software as medical device) formulated to treat specific medical conditions. Due to the ability of DTx to deliver just-in-time, patient-centered therapeutic content, the integration of DTx with pharmacotherapies can advance precision medicine beyond genomics, epigenomics, and pharmacogenomics. Examples of challenges in the adoption of DTx in healthcare include attrition rates, scalability, reimbursement, cybersecurity risks, and data governance. Research and clinical development of DTx are paralleled with advances in wearables for digital biomarkers and other digital health technologies. Studies on the clinical efficacy and cost effectiveness of digital therapies support the evidence-based implementation of DTx in healthcare systems.

A unique feature of DTx projects is their cross-disciplinary nature, spanning areas such as computer science and engineering, clinical development, healthcare, public health, cybersecurity, business, and regulatory affairs. This Special Issue welcomes articles covering diverse aspects of advancing DTx, from early development stages through to implementation into healthcare. The goal of this Special Issue is to provide a cross-disciplinary dialogue platform to share ideas and results related to DTx. We invite research articles, reviews, perspectives, and other types of articles, describing design, clinical evaluations (pilot studies and pivotal RCTs), cost effectiveness, and implementation of DTx.

Dr. Grzegorz Bulaj
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.