Digital Health Service and Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

For this Special Issue, the journal is calling for papers that examine the link between digital health services and sustainability. This Special Issue will focus on how the digitalization of health services can meet the challenges of the future.

The rapid changes in the field underscore the need for increased research focus. Health services face vast challenges that will increase in the years to come. This is due to demographic changes, such as an aging population, and to an increase in individuals in need of treatment and care. Lack of labor and other resources is a barrier to the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals (SDG), in particular, SDG no. 3: good health and well-being; and no. 11: sustainable cities and communities. Digital health service (or eHealth) is viewed as an important instrument to meet these challenges. Internet and digital technologies change our world, but old boundaries, thought patterns, and regulations prevent communities and countries from fully utilizing digital capabilities. Even though the innovative initiatives are manifold, the complexity of the context often leads to failure in their implementation or less-than-optimal solutions.

Alongside numerous governmental agencies around the world, the research community has also begun devoting their efforts to research on digital health service and how it can contribute to future health care. Although the implementation of technology in health care faces challenges similar to those of other industries, the field of health care is made additionally complex due to the number of stakeholders, and among them, the vulnerable person in need of help and care. The current discourse also questions whether increased digitalization will contribute to meeting the sustainability goal of good health and well-being, and what it means for the organization and delivery of the service. Furthermore, digitalization of the health service will impact society’s resilience, both on a general level, in the context of family (for instance, regarding the burden of care), and the resilience of individuals.

We welcome contributions on a broad scale. The broadness applies both to the field of health care, the field of digital health service, and to how sustainability is interpreted and operationalized. Anticipated themes include the following nonexhaustive list of topics:

• Sustainability as a relevant issue in digital health services
• Methodology and design for studies of sustainable digital health services
• Sustainable innovation and service design in the digital health service
• User participation and co-creation for sustainability in the digital health service
• Building resilience and sustainability through digitalization of promotive health service

Prof. Etty R. Nilsen
Dr. Monika Knudsen Gullslett
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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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.

• digital health care
• sustainable health care