Systems Thinking and Healthcare Communities: A Community Approach to Transforming Healthcare
A special issue of Systems (ISSN 2079-8954). This special issue belongs to the section "Systems Practice in Social Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 1879
Special Issue Editors
Interests: collective intelligence; collaborative innovation; real-time Delphi; generative AI
Interests: literacy health and planetary health in Latin America; applying circular economy systemic principles to food waste management; promoting ecological and environmental awareness in HEIs; interdisciplinary approaches to research climate emergency
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The healthcare sector is increasingly grappling with complexity arising from evolving patient needs, rapid technological advancements, intricate organizational structures, and a complex regulatory environment. This Special Issue of Systems aims to explore how systems thinking can profoundly support the challenging process of transforming healthcare to achieve better outcomes. Specifically, there is significant potential in applying systems thinking to the community dimension of healthcare, where diverse, holistic solutions can address these multifaceted challenges. The integrative framework of systems thinking may aid not only in understanding the dynamics of healthcare but also help in analyzing its future scenarios.
By conceptualizing healthcare as an interconnected system of patients, providers, technologies, policies, and communities, systems thinking enables stakeholders to identify patterns, anticipate unintended consequences, and design integrated strategies that improve health outcomes. This approach emphasizes the role of healthcare communities—comprising all individuals and organizations involved in health promotion and service delivery within a specific population or region—in fostering collaborative and efficient healthcare delivery.
By advancing the understanding of how systems thinking can drive sustainable innovation and efficiency in healthcare through community strategies, this Special Issue seeks to enrich the critical discourse on transforming healthcare systems. We encourage contributions that offer theoretical frameworks, empirical research, and insightful analyses to deepen our knowledge of this crucial area.
We invite submissions including the following:
- Community Engagement and Empowerment: Strategies for involving patients and community members in healthcare decision-making processes.
- Integration of Healthcare Services: Systemic approaches to coordinating care across hospitals, clinics, and community organizations to create cohesive healthcare communities.
- Policy and Regulatory Frameworks: Explore and investigate ways as to how systems thinking can inform policy development to support community-based healthcare initiatives.
- Technological Innovations: Exploration of digital health tools and their systemic impact on community health and care delivery.
- Health Disparities and Equity: Utilizing systems thinking to address and reduce health and gender inequalities within communities.
- Health Education, Health Literacy Education and Capacity Building: The role of systems thinking in training healthcare professionals and empowering community health workers.
- Case Studies and Best Practices: Empirical studies highlighting successful implementations of systems thinking in healthcare communities.
- Challenges and Limitations: Critical analyses of the obstacles in applying systems thinking within healthcare communities and potential solutions.
- Technology-Based Systems Thinking: Application of emerging technologies to develop new systems thinking techniques and strategies.
- Systemic approaches and frameworks to explore the complexity and multidimensionality of health and digital literacy and its impact in communities.
Dr. Josep María Monguet-Fierro
Prof. Dr. Alberto Paucar-Caceres
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. Systems 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 2400 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.
Keywords
- systems
- healthcare
- communities
- innovation
- integration
- policy
- technology
- equity
- health education
- engagement
- health literacy
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