Digital technologies have promised to transform healthcare and health research by proposing innovative solutions to both classic and emergent medical problems. The past and ongoing adoption of digital innovation in the health and medical sectors has already resulted in different applications such as electronic health records, telemedicine, and telecare, mHealth apps, wearable, ingestible and implantable digital medical devices, robots, and AI algorithms. In parallel and inescapably, health data (latu sensu, encompassing all data directly or indirectly connected with present or future health) is currently collected, stored, analysed, and shared in increasing volume. This combination of novel technologies with the expanded capacity to capture, manage and use information to better inform decisions in different health settings opens the way for more timely and precise health interventions, including research, prevention, diagnosis, and therapy.
Concurrent with this scientific and technical potential, progress in digital health and the growing influence of big data in medicine raise compelling professional and regulatory challenges and elicit significant ethical, legal, and social implications, which can be felt at a micro (health professional-patient), meso (institutional) or macro (regional, national, and international) level.
This Research Topic aims to provide a comprehensive overview on the current trends, scientific potential, regulatory and professional challenges and ethical and social implications of digital health and big data in medicine, including prevention, clinical care, research, management, regulation, and health policy perspectives. We welcome multi- and transdisciplinary contributions, particularly from the family medicine, primary health care and regulatory science communities, including physicians, nurses, midwifes, physiotherapists, occupational health officers, community pharmacists, members of the pharmaceutical industry, health managers, social scientists, ethicists and legal scholars, health regulation and health policy professionals.
Reviews, Original Research, Brief Research Reports, and Opinion article types are welcome. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Impact on health outcomes of digital health applications in contexts of health promotion, disease prevention, health care and health research.
- Health technology assessment, adoption, risk evaluation, and validation of digital health innovation, including telehealth and telemedicine, mHealth, artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital medical devices.
- Certification and safety of digital medical devices.
- Interaction of digital health and precision medicine from a primary healthcare and regulatory science perspective.
- Potential and limitations of social media in healthcare and health research contexts.
- Promotion of health and digital literacy, professional capacitation, and patient participation and inclusion in digital health environments.
- Privacy, confidentiality, and health data protection issues.
- Humanisation and dehumanisation in healthcare and health research settings.
Digital technologies have promised to transform healthcare and health research by proposing innovative solutions to both classic and emergent medical problems. The past and ongoing adoption of digital innovation in the health and medical sectors has already resulted in different applications such as electronic health records, telemedicine, and telecare, mHealth apps, wearable, ingestible and implantable digital medical devices, robots, and AI algorithms. In parallel and inescapably, health data (latu sensu, encompassing all data directly or indirectly connected with present or future health) is currently collected, stored, analysed, and shared in increasing volume. This combination of novel technologies with the expanded capacity to capture, manage and use information to better inform decisions in different health settings opens the way for more timely and precise health interventions, including research, prevention, diagnosis, and therapy.
Concurrent with this scientific and technical potential, progress in digital health and the growing influence of big data in medicine raise compelling professional and regulatory challenges and elicit significant ethical, legal, and social implications, which can be felt at a micro (health professional-patient), meso (institutional) or macro (regional, national, and international) level.
This Research Topic aims to provide a comprehensive overview on the current trends, scientific potential, regulatory and professional challenges and ethical and social implications of digital health and big data in medicine, including prevention, clinical care, research, management, regulation, and health policy perspectives. We welcome multi- and transdisciplinary contributions, particularly from the family medicine, primary health care and regulatory science communities, including physicians, nurses, midwifes, physiotherapists, occupational health officers, community pharmacists, members of the pharmaceutical industry, health managers, social scientists, ethicists and legal scholars, health regulation and health policy professionals.
Reviews, Original Research, Brief Research Reports, and Opinion article types are welcome. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Impact on health outcomes of digital health applications in contexts of health promotion, disease prevention, health care and health research.
- Health technology assessment, adoption, risk evaluation, and validation of digital health innovation, including telehealth and telemedicine, mHealth, artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital medical devices.
- Certification and safety of digital medical devices.
- Interaction of digital health and precision medicine from a primary healthcare and regulatory science perspective.
- Potential and limitations of social media in healthcare and health research contexts.
- Promotion of health and digital literacy, professional capacitation, and patient participation and inclusion in digital health environments.
- Privacy, confidentiality, and health data protection issues.
- Humanisation and dehumanisation in healthcare and health research settings.