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Digital Technologies to Support Health and Wellbeing

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Digital Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 April 2023) | Viewed by 5768

Special Issue Editors

1. Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel, 4002 Basel, Switzerland
2. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA 02111, USA
3. Partners In Health, Boston, MA 02111, USA
Interests: digital health; health information; decision support; informatics; electronic medical records
Ifakara Health Institute, Ifakara 67501, Tanzania
Interests: digital health; health information; decision support; informatics; electronic medical records

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Digital technologies are revolutionizing the health care sector. This revolution provides unique opportunities to improve health quality and coverage. However, it also comes with challenges related to the harmonization of devices and data systems, data quality, data security, and ethical concerns regarding the confidentiality of health records. This Special Issue focuses on the continuum of health care supported by digital technologies: from disease screening and detection in the community, to triage, and clinical decision support, as well as electronic medical records in health facilities, central health information systems enabling ministries of health, and public health departments for exploring disease trends and making data-driven decisions. We invite submissions of articles that offer evaluations of digital tools in these settings—integration and interoperability of systems—enforcing good software development standards and practices, as well as ethical and data security challenges surrounding their development, implementation, and use. We accept most types of articles: conventional research articles, reviews, case reports, and commentary/viewpoints, and encourage the submission of high-quality, descriptive and hypothesis-generating papers focusing on innovative software features and functionalities, as well as digital health landscape analyses.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

  • Digital applications for community health workers;
  • Digitization of clinical guidelines;
  • Development and use of clinical decision support tools;
  • Digitization of patient records;
  • Development and use of clinical dashboards;
  • Health management information systems;
  • Integration and interoperability of digital applications;
  • Artificial intelligence and machine learning;
  • Ethics around digital patient data storage, transmission and use;
  • System security;
  • Digital health equity.

Dr. Alexandra V. Kulinkina
Dr. Sabine Renggli
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. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 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 2500 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

  • digital health
  • health information
  • decision support
  • informatics
  • electronic medical records

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 484 KiB  
Article
Innovative Methods Used in Monitoring COVID-19 in Europe: A Multinational Study
by Brigid Unim, Nienke Schutte, Martin Thissen and Luigi Palmieri
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(1), 564; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010564 - 29 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3474
Abstract
Several innovative methods have been deployed worldwide to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the study is to investigate which innovative methods are used to monitor COVID-19 health issues in Europe and related legislative and ethical aspects. An online questionnaire was administered [...] Read more.
Several innovative methods have been deployed worldwide to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the study is to investigate which innovative methods are used to monitor COVID-19 health issues in Europe and related legislative and ethical aspects. An online questionnaire was administered to European countries’ representatives of the project Population Health Information Research Infrastructure. Additional information was obtained from websites and documents provided by the respondents; an overview of the literature was also performed. Respondents from 14 countries participated in the study. Digital tools are used to monitor the spread of COVID-19 (13/14 countries) and vaccination coverage (12/14); for research, diagnostics, telehealth (14/14); to fight disinformation (11/14) and forecast the pandemic spread (4/14). The level of implementation of telehealth applications was mostly low/medium. Legislative and ethical issues were encountered in many countries, leading to institutional distrust. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for timely and accurate health data for research purposes and policy planning. However, the use of innovative methods for population health monitoring and timely data collection has posed challenges to privacy and online security globally. Adequate regulatory oversight, targeted public health interventions, and fight against disinformation could improve the uptake rate and enhance countries’ emergency preparedness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Technologies to Support Health and Wellbeing)
12 pages, 932 KiB  
Article
Experience with Obese Patients Followed via Telemedicine in a Latin American Tertiary Care Medical Center
by Alejandro López, Maria Fernanda Escobar, Alejandra Urbano, Juliana Alarcón, Laura Libreros-Peña, Diana Marcela Martinez-Ruiz and Luz Ángela Casas
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(19), 12406; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912406 - 29 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1357
Abstract
Background: Obesity is a major public health concern worldwide. Latin America has experienced rapid growth in obesity incidence during the last few decades. Driven by confinement measures, a telemedicine program was implemented in March 2020 to give continuity to obese patients’ care through [...] Read more.
Background: Obesity is a major public health concern worldwide. Latin America has experienced rapid growth in obesity incidence during the last few decades. Driven by confinement measures, a telemedicine program was implemented in March 2020 to give continuity to obese patients’ care through a weight loss program led by the endocrinology department in a tertiary care medical center in Latin America. Objective: This study aimed to describe the clinical experience of using digital health for monitoring and attention of obese patients and description of weight change outcomes of these patients followed via telemedicine during March 2020–December 2020. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted including 202 patients. A Skillings-Mack test was performed to conduct a subgroup analysis of the medians of the weight over the follow-up period, and a mixed multiple linear regression model was performed to estimate the expected average change in weight over time Results: We observed good adherence to the program, represented by a weight loss of −4.1 kg at three months of follow-up, which was maintained even during the sixth month of follow-up. Conclusions: Digital Health strategies such as telemedicine can be a helpful tool for both patients and health care providers to support the continuity of care and showing satisfactory results in the management of obese patients. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Technologies to Support Health and Wellbeing)
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