mHealth Platform and Sensors

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past decades, mortality rates have fallen significantly around the world, leading to considerable changes in the age distribution of societies. Parallel to the ageing phenomenon, there is systematic evidence that frailty syndrome, associated with physical, functional, and cognitive decline; mental diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s; as well as social isolation, are health ailments that trigger more dependencies and comorbidities. Long-term care and health care costs are expected to contribute the most to the rise in age-related spending and thus will have wide-ranging implications regarding the sustainability of the current social and health systems models. While a considerable proportion of this expenditure relates to direct drugs costs and new health technologies, the lack of integration between high-cost hospital care and community care with appropriate digital tools adds to this burden.

This has led many governments to search and invest in sustainable solutions that help to slow down the progression of these conditions, allowing older people to stay longer in smart living environments that evolve along with them as they age. Other initiatives include progress towards the standardization and interoperability of eHealth solutions in support of health system reforms, the adoption of new standards for digital health and care, the strengthening of the digital infrastructure for the cross border exchange of health data, and new investment in the large-scale implementation of digital health and social care programmes by national and regional authorities.

This Special Issue aims to explore approaches for mHealth platforms, frameworks, and sensors for medical and consumer applications to be adopted in this vast emerging scenario. Contributions that address but are not restricted to the following topics are welcome:

• New models of digital services design, procurement, and delivery;
• Novel platforms for smart living healthy environments;
• New technologies as enablers of new healthcare paradigms;
• New accessible and intuitive user led-adaptable services to prolong and support autonomy and continuous care;
• An in-depth understanding of end users and the way data is produced and used by citizen and healthcare systems;
• Maintaining cybersecurity, as connected medical devices present additional risks for data security;
• Interoperability, governance, accountability, and tracking;
• Quality of data: there is often a focus on combining clinical data, but the quality of combined datasets could be enhanced by integrating all types of data, including social information and climate data;
• Sources of data: information from personal spaces is often perceived as ‘dirty data’, since it may be incomplete or seen as biased or less reliable;
• Use of data: current diagnostic techniques rely on the reporting of symptoms and syndromes. Data usage and impact need to be fed back to close the loop;
• Evidence and standards.

Submitted papers should present novel contributions and innovative applications. Relevant topical reviews are also welcome.

Dr. Maria Teresa Arredondo Waldmeyer
Dr. Maria Fernanda Cabrera-Umpiérrez
Dr. Giuseppe Fico
Guest Editors

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