Emerging Disruptions in Healthcare Systems: How Digital Innovation is Reshaping Policy, Practice, and Patient Outcomes

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, “Emerging Disruptions in Healthcare Systems: How Digital Innovation is Reshaping Policy, Practice, and Patient Outcomes”, will explore the transformative potential of emerging digital innovations in addressing pressing issues across healthcare systems. As healthcare systems grapple with aging populations, the rising burden of chronic diseases, and increasing cross-border health threats, digital solutions, ranging from patient portals, electronic health records, and telemedicine platforms to AI-driven decision support, mobile technologies, and wearable devices, are playing a pivotal role in modernizing diagnostic and treatment procedures. These innovations can also enhance patient–provider interactions, strengthen communication among institutional stakeholders, and improve the overall productivity of healthcare providers. Digital innovations are redefining management and business operations, strengthening the oversight of clinical, financial, and legal compliance, and reshaping policymaking processes, as well as public health research.

However, the adoption of digital innovations requires profound, long-term, and systemic changes and presents significant challenges for all healthcare systems. Initiatives in this area frequently face technological and institutional barriers, such as fragmented infrastructures, limited data interoperability and standardization, complex data governance, inefficient organizational structures and workflows, and resource limitations. In addition, deep-rooted sociocultural and systemic factors, including low user involvement, resistance to change, digital literacy gaps, ethical and privacy concerns, and a lack of policy guidance and regulatory coherence, can further hinder effective digital transformation.

For this Special Issue, we invite scholarly contributions that critically engage with these developments and explore both the obstacles and opportunities posed by digital health innovation. We welcome interdisciplinary studies assessing the role of digital technologies in optimizing service delivery, informing policy, and improving the efficiency of healthcare providers and systems. Submissions grounded in empirical data and real-world experience are especially encouraged.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: the development and implementation of digital innovations; their impact on clinical, managerial, and policy domains; barriers and enablers in digital transformation; and the role of digital innovations in public health management. By offering critical analysis and evidence-based insights, this collection will support the advancement of digital innovations toward more efficient, sustainable, and resilient healthcare systems.

Dr. Dalibor Stanimirović
Guest Editor

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. 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.

• patient-centered digital innovations (eHealth), service delivery, and treatment outcomes
• AI and data-driven decision support systems in strategic planning
• telemedicine, remote monitoring, and mobile health (mHealth)
• integration and interoperability of electronic health records (EHRs)
• digital health literacy and user engagement strategies
• governance, policies, and regulatory challenges in digital health
• data privacy, security, and ethics in digital healthcare ecosystems
• digital tools for public health surveillance and emergency response
• socio-technical barriers and enablers of digital transformation
• cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary approaches to digital health
• impacts of digital health innovations on institutional/system performance