Since the emergence of biomedicine and its associated range of technologies, the practice of healthcare in the global North has progressively moved towards the visual and the auditory, while the other sensory ways of knowing (smell, taste and touch) have often been relegated to the margins. A plethora of digital technologies are now used to monitor, measure, diagnose and provide medical treatment to human bodies. These include apps for mobile devices, remote patient monitoring systems, wearable self-tracking devices and smartwatches, digital medical monitoring systems inserted in the body, virtual reality technologies for medical training, ‘smart’ clothing, furniture and environments and 3D-printed human anatomical replicas.
These technologies approach and develop understandings of the body in ways that involve the human senses working in conjunction with digital sensors. They have significant implications for how the human senses are discerned and represented and the ways in which the senses are employed in healthcare and public health. In some contexts, visualizing and auditory technologies continue to receive high attention and credence, often to the exclusion of the other senses (for example, in telemedicine, when healthcare providers must rely on visual images and sound in their interactions with patients). However, digital sensors can now access dimensions of human senses in new ways, in turn inviting sensory responses from the humans that they monitor. The Apple Watch, for example, is a sensory device in a number of dimensions. It both rests on the wearer’s skin as part of generating data about that person’s body (including aspects of the wearer’s sensory experiences) and generates sensations, using haptic signals to communicate notifications to the wearer.
This special issue is directed at research from a sociocultural perspective that addresses the entanglements of human senses with digital sensors in the portrayal, conceptualization and use of digital health technologies on the part of both lay people and professionals working in healthcare and public health.

TOPICS:
•Physiological models for interpreting medical sensor data
•Sensing/Actuating Technologies and Pervasive Computing
•Human-Computer Interaction and Computer Supported Cooperative Work
•Hardware and Software Infrastructures
•User modelling and personalization
•Sensor-based decision support systems
•Wearable and implantable sensor integration
•Data mining of medical patient records
•Electronic Health Records
•Identifying and addressing stakeholder needs
•Usability and acceptability
•Barriers and enablers to adoption
•Social implications of pervasive health technology, and social inclusion
•Diversity: population and condition-specific requirements
•Inclusive research and design: engaging underrepresented populations
•Digital interventions and health behavior change
•Applications
•Autonomous systems to support independent living
•Clinical applications, validation and evaluation studies
•Telemedicine and mHealth solutions
•Chronic disease and health risk management applications
•Health/Wellbeing promotion and disease prevention
•Home based health and wellness measurement and monitoring
•Continuous vs event-driven monitoring of patients
•Smart homes and hospitals
•Using mobile devices in the storage, update, and transmission of patient data
•Challenges surrounding data quality
•Standards and interoperability in pervasive healthcare
•Business cases and cost issues
•Security and privacy issues
•Training of healthcare professional for pervasive healthcare
•Legal and regulatory issues
•Staffing and resource management

This special issue will be published in EAI Endorsed Transactions on Pervasive Health and Technology, an open access journal abstracted/indexed in Scopus, DOAJ, DBLP, CrossRef, EBSCO, WorldCat, Dimensions, among others. It focuses on personal electronic health assistants, health crowdsourcing, data mining and knowledge management, IT applications to needs of patients, disease prevention and awareness, electronic and mobile health platforms including design and more.

GUEST EDITOR: Robbi Rahim, Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Manajemen Sukma, Indonesia (Email: robbirahim@ieee.org).

ABOUT GUEST EDITOR:
Robbi Rahim received his Master in Protocol Cryptography and soon his PhD degree also focus Protocol Cryptography. He has more than 5 years of teaching experience, having previously worked as head of publication at STIM Sukma Medan, Indonesia. His main research work focuses on Computer Security, Genetic Algorithm, Steganography, Cryptography and Decision Support System. Currently, he is working in the area of Cryptography and Decision Support System, with a specialization in the model of communication in Protocol Cryptography.