Smart Support for Health Care Systems

Dear Colleagues,

For more than three decades, digital health technologies have been one of the driving forces of advancement in health care systems. At first, there was a slow start with the advent of electronic health (e-health). The electronic medical records (EMRs), a critical element of e-health, were technically feasible since 1960s, but were not used widely until 1990s. Their value was elevated only after the incorporation of clinical decision support functions and the emergence of electronic health records (EHR), integrating EMR with other digitized health care systems. The optimal use of e-health has the potential to resolve the challenges of delivering health care, especially to those with multiple chronic conditions, in an environment characterized by fragmented institutions and physical structures.

At the beginning of 2000s, the arrival of mobile health (m-health) started a second wave of developments in health care systems. Although wearable health monitoring devices promoting healthy lifestyles may be the most widely used devices today, the potential for m-health seems endless. Wearables prescribed by physicians or implanted medical devices can help with real-time remote monitoring and management of chronic conditions and early detection and treatment of diseases. Virtual reality applications can facilitate new approaches to rehabilitation and pain management. A network of environmental, biomedical, and motion detecting sensors can be influential in the design of ambient assisted living spaces for older adults who wish to live independently.

The integration of e- and m-health can lead to an optimally connected health care systems supporting personalized care, promoting guideline adherence and efficiency. The analysis of big data generated by e- and m-health using old (such as auto-regressive integrated moving average) or new (artificial intelligence based machine-learning or human intelligence augmented deep-learning) methods can be used in the development of predictive models promoting preventive care. These methods have the potential to expedite health care research and surveillance especially in a period when time is of essence, such as in a pandemic.

Although the potential benefits of e- and m-health systems are enormous, the current challenges are also numerous. These include issues related to the establishment of legal norms and a regulatory framework for the protection of privacy and security of health care data; laying the foundations for an ever growing need for inter-disciplinary collaboration; formulating the protocols and standards to achieve technical, syntactic and semantic interoperability of systems; outlining the requirements for best digital network performance with seamless connectivity, secured transmissions and optimal data storage; and designing a framework for the critical assessment of e- and m-health systems.

In this Special Issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, we are looking forward to your contributions with reference to the current status of e- and m-health systems considering their accrued and potential benefits and remaining challenges. All types of manuscripts, including original research articles, reviews, case reports, methodological articles, position papers, brief reports, and commentaries are welcome.

Dr. Sema K. Aydede
Guest Editor

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