AI-Enabled Digital Health Technologies for Patient-Centered Care and Sustainable Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Digital health technologies are increasingly central to patient-centered care, enabling more personalized, responsive and data-informed health services. Advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital platforms and connected health systems have expanded the capacity of health organizations to improve care coordination, service navigation and patient engagement. These developments are particularly relevant in urban contexts, where health outcomes are closely intertwined with infrastructure, service density and long-term system sustainability.

Alongside rapid technological innovation, there is a growing need for robust conceptual frameworks and evaluative approaches that can guide the design, implementation and assessment of artificial intelligence-enabled digital health products. Beyond predictive accuracy or technical performance, stakeholders require systematic ways to evaluate how these technologies support patient-centered care, integrate with urban and health infrastructure and contribute to sustainable health systems. Methodological innovation—combining computational approaches with qualitative and mixed-methods research—is essential to advancing this agenda.

This Special Issue seeks interdisciplinary contributions that examine artificial intelligence-enabled and digital health technologies from conceptual, methodological, organizational and systems perspectives, with a focus on patient-centered care and sustainable health and urban systems.

We invite original research articles, reviews, conceptual papers and methodological contributions that address the development, implementation, evaluation and governance of artificial intelligence-enabled digital health technologies. Submissions may draw from health services research, public health, medicine, informatics, management studies, urban studies and related disciplines.

Topics of Interest Include (but are not limited to):

• AI and machine learning applications for patient-centered care delivery
• IoT-enabled health systems integrated with urban infrastructure and service ecosystems
• Digital platforms supporting access to housing, food systems and mental health services
• Urban health applications of telehealth, mobile health and remote monitoring
• Sustainable development perspectives on digital health and health system infrastructure
• Organizational and managerial implications of artificial intelligence-driven digital transformation in health care
• Explainable, interpretable and responsible use of artificial intelligence and digital technologies
• Governance, accountability and risk management of artificial intelligence-enabled health systems

Conceptual and Measurement Contributions

The Special Issue explicitly welcomes work that develops or applies:

• Conceptual frameworks for understanding artificial intelligence-enabled digital health and patient-centered care
• Theoretical models linking digital health technologies to health system performance and sustainability
• Evaluation frameworks for artificial intelligence-based health products and platforms
• Suggested measures and indicators to assess the effectiveness, usability, integration and system-level impact of AI and digital health technologies
• Frameworks supporting comparative evaluation across technologies, settings, or populations

Methodological Contributions

We particularly encourage submissions that advance or combine innovative methodologies, including:

• Machine learning and advanced analytics applied to health and social care data
• Explainable artificial intelligence and model interpretability in clinical and population health contexts
• Qualitative research, ethnography and fieldwork examining real-world deployment and use of digital health technologies
• Mixed-methods designs integrating computational, organizational and social science approaches
• Design science, implementation research and system-level evaluations of digital health interventions

Submissions should clearly articulate their conceptual, methodological, or empirical contribution to patient-centered care and explain the relevance of artificial intelligence-enabled or digital technologies to health system performance, infrastructure, or sustainability.

Authors are encouraged to highlight implications for health organizations, policymakers, technology developers and practitioners.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Healthcare.

Prof. Dr. Ricky Leung
Dr. Chi Ho Li
Guest Editors

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. Informatics 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 1800 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.