About this Research Topic

Background

Advancements in information and communication technologies offer a variety of opportunities for public health researchers and practitioners, from rapidly disseminating health information and engaging patients and the public for health promotion, to reaching out to underserved populations for health interventions and education. In the last decade, academic references on use of technologies for behavioral and social medicines has become prolific in a wide range of literatures. Along with the exponential growth in mobile, internet and social media technologies, leveraging scientific principles, theories, and research methods is key to effectively harnessing these technologies and media environments for public health impact. Multidisciplinary methods are critical and rigorous, scientific approaches will help generate replicable and reproducible research outcomes.

For this Research Topic, we are looking for papers on the topic of technologies and health communication, broadly conceptualized and inclusive of diverse theoretical approaches and multidisciplinary methodologies with the following key questions:

• How do we leverage social media, digital technology, and big data to improve health communication research?
• How can researchers translate empirical evidence, theoretical frameworks, and scientific methods to engage health populations of interest for behavioral change in the new media landscape?

In particular, we encourage submissions addressing, but not limited to, the following topics:

• persuasive technologies for effective health campaigns
• methods and outcomes from technology-based interventions with tailored health messages
• implementation of theories and novel methods for technology-delivered health interventions
• interactive media applications, social media platforms, mobile tools, or content for behavioral medicine and health communication
• social networks and intersections with peers (e.g., commenting on social media) to crowdsource health information
• technology-assisted social support to improve well-being and health
• development of ecological momentary assessments (EMA) to access dynamic changes in health behaviors and communication
• challenges and findings from big data, data mining and informatics for public health research
• technology-based clinical trials using rigorous intervention designs (Just-In-Time Adaptive Interventions)
• computational health surveillance using mobile applications, sensors, and trackers to monitor momentary changes in risk behaviors and emotions
• social media-based recruitment for population health science
• challenges and opportunities of harnessing social media and mobile technologies for underserved health populations.

We welcome contributions that present original empirical work; conceptual or theoretical analyses; meta-analyses; systematic reviews; or unique visions and perspectives. We encourage multidisciplinary scholarly contributions that come from diverse disciplines such as communications, information science, public health, behavioral medicine, population health, cancer prevention and control, addiction, technologies, data science, and computational social science.

Initial abstracts should contain approximately 350 words, and articles should be no longer than 5,000 words, excluding abstract, notes, references, tables and figures.

Keywords: Technology, Health communication, Behavioral change, Digital health, Data science

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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