Robotics in Healthcare: Automation, Sensing and Application

Dear colleagues,

Global healthcare systems must deal with challenges related to population aging, the rise of the prevalence of chronic diseases, and the logical desire and need of patients for more personalized medicine and closer care. This situation puts pressure on the system and compromises sustainability due to budget constraints, and available resources are not enough to cover increasing demand.

The introduction of innovative technology, new service models, and digitalization is needed to ensure the adequate, sustainable, and efficient adaptation of our healthcare systems for them to be able to respond to actual and future health needs from a more demanding population.

Robotics combined with sensors, smart communication, artificial intelligence, and easy-to-use medical interfaces are promising solutions to overcome problems in many healthcare areas, such as care planning, procedure performance, diagnostics, infection control, medication management, and the improvement of patient experience or monitoring.

These technologies have the potential to dramatically transform the current concept of a healthcare system. Homes, schools, jobs, gyms, and any other environment can be part of the health system for those patients that could be remotely followed, outside of hospitals or clinics.

The deployment and integration of these technologies into digital healthcare systems, their logistics, and management procedures address a wide range of healthcare applications, for example, in patient care, prevention, diagnosis, or treatment surveillance. Regulations related to medical-device, ethical, data-protection, and cybersecurity issues are also key in the success of this novel concept.

In this Special Issue, possible contributions may include realistic clinical/medical applications of robots combined with sensors and other technologies (hardware and software) to transform current healthcare models and enhance personalized medicine.

Furthermore, contributions should demonstrate how the combination of digital and physical services or systems arises as a care solution for hospitals, clinics, primary care centers, rehabilitation centers, care homes, etc.

Novel contributions around the automation of any medical procedure including robots or sensor networks, data processing and analysis, and staff/patient–machine interfaces are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Cecilia Garcia
Prof. Dr. Changsheng 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 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. Sensors 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 2600 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.