Digital Healthcare Innovation towards Increased Patient Self-Directed Care

Dear Colleagues,

Around the world, a growing challenge is represented by the change in demography, resulting in both an increasing number of elderly people living with one or more chronic condition, as well as the decreased capacity of the healthcare workforce. One answer to this challenge may be increasing digitalization, enabling more patients to be self-directed in handling their condition. This raises new challenges, such as the digital competence of the workforce and patients, how to organize services to achieve the full benefits of digitalization, and how to assist those not able to use technology due to impairment. In this Special Issue, we would like to invite researchers to submit contributions focused on one or more of these aspects.

This Special Issue will focus on the ongoing digital transformation of healthcare services, addressing how we can organize healthcare, assisted by technology, to increase the involvement of patients and engage them to be more self-directed in relation to their health condition. A topic of particular relevance to this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, elderly people with one or more chronic conditions, as, in most countries, this group uses a considerable proportion of the resources in hospitals. Research articles which address new ways to organize healthcare, assisted by technology; studies examining the effects of digital interventions; studies exploring facilitators and barriers, e.g., health or digital health literacy; or studies addressing the development of the formal and informal competence of caregivers and patients are welcome. This Special Issue particularly welcomes studies that include aspects of interdisciplinary collaboration between both the primary and secondary health sectors.

Dr. Lars Kayser
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. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 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 2500 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.

• digital transformation
• interdisciplinary collaboration
• primary and secondary sector
• workforce competence
• digital health literacy