Digital health and the healthcare workforce

Guest Editors

Kerryn Butler-Henderson, PhD, Charles Sturt University, Australia
Karen Day, PhD, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Clair Sullivan, MD, University of Queensland, Australia

Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 10 January 2025

BMC Health Services Research is calling for submissions to a Collection on Digital health and the healthcare workforce. The swift integration of digital tools brings new challenges, impacts workloads and user experiences, and highlights the need to overcome integration barriers. This collection invites original qualitative and quantitative research, systematic/scoping review articles, and study protocols that reflect the multifaceted reality of digital healthcare and its impact on the healthcare workforce.

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Meet the Guest Editors

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Karen Day, PhD, The University of Auckland, New Zealand

Dr Karen Day is a senior lecturer in health informatics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Dr Day has been the Director of the postgraduate digital health programme, and leads health informatics teaching at undergraduate level. Karen has served on the Board for Health Informatics New Zealand, and is a known advocate for the digital health workforce. Karen is a Fellow of the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics, a Fellow of Health Informatics New Zealand, and a foundation Fellow of the Australasian Institute for Digital Health. She is associate editor for BMJ Health and Care Informatics and JMIR Nursing.

Kerryn Butler-Henderson, PhD, Charles Sturt University, Australia

Professor Kerryn Butler-Henderson is the Head, School of Nursing, Paramedicine and Healthcare Sciences at Charles Sturt University. Kerryn is a well-respected digital health academic, with more than twenty years’ experience working in health and higher education. Kerryn is a Fellow of the AIDH and Deputy Editor on the BMJ Health and Care Informatics journal. Kerryn was recognised for her expertise in 2021 as a Future50 Health IT Leader by HIMSS and a 2022 Telstra Health Brilliant Women in Digital Health Award recipient. Kerryn is known for her dedication to the promotion and advocacy of the digital health workforce.

Clair Sullivan, MD, Centre for Health Service Research, University of Queensland, Australia

Professor Clair Sullivan was appointed Associate Professor of Medicine in Clinical Informatics at UQ and the inaugural Head of UQ’s Digital Health Research Network. Clair is also the Clinical Informatics Director for Research at Metro North’s Hospital and Health Service. Clair has recently been appointed the Director of the new Queensland Digital Health Centre. Professor Clair Sullivan is an internationally-recognised leading practising and academic clinical informatician, and helps drive digital health transformation in Queensland. Clair serves on several national advisory boards for digital health. Clair is ranked in the top 1% of Medical Informatics researchers globally.

About the Collection

BMC Health Services Research is calling for submissions to a Collection on Digital health and the healthcare workforce.

In the evolving landscape of healthcare, digital technologies such as eHealth, mHealth, and Telehealth are transforming patient care. The swift integration of digital tools brings new challenges, impacts workloads and user experiences, and highlights the need to overcome integration barriers. Balancing the positive and negative effects on health workers' performance and fostering digital health literacy are essential considerations in this new field of health services research. Understanding this relationship between digital health and the healthcare workforce is paramount for effectively navigating rapidly changing health systems and optimizing the integration of digital health tools into existing processes.

This collection invites original qualitative and quantitative research, systematic/scoping review articles, and study protocols that reflect the multifaceted reality of digital healthcare and its impact on the healthcare workforce. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Barriers and facilitators in implementation of digital health interventions
The adoption and uptake of digital health technologies among healthcare workers
The impact of digital health on health workforce workload
Evaluating the performance and efficiency gains resulting from digital tools in healthcare
User-centered design in digital health: enhancing user experiences for healthcare professionals for a trustworthy, ethical, and human-centered digital transformation
Filling workforce shortages: strategies and challenges in integrating digital healthcare solutions
Models of education and training for health professionals to support the digital health implementation and foster responsible use of digital technologies in care or health services research
Digital health adoption in resource-limited settings: opportunities and challenges for healthcare workers
The effect of digital technologies on the provision and quality of care in remote and underserved areas

Image credit: Ridofranz / Getty Images / iStock

There are currently no articles in this collection.

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Digital health and the healthcare workforce" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.