pHealth 2020

Book excerpt: Smart mobile systems such as microsystems, smart textiles, smart implants, and sensor-controlled medical devices, together with their related networks, have become important enablers for telemedicine and ubiquitous pervasive health to become next-generation health services. This book presents the proceedings of pHealth 2020, held as a virtual conference from 14 – 16 September 2020. This is the 17th in a series of international conferences on wearable or implantable micro and nano technologies for personalized medicine, which bring together expertise from medical, technological, political, administrative, and social domains, and cover subjects including technological and biomedical facilities, legal, ethical, social, and organizational requirements and impacts, and the research necessary to enable future-proof care paradigms. The 2020 conference also covers AI and robots in healthcare; bio-data management and analytics for personalized health; security, privacy and safety challenges; integrated care; and the intelligent management of specific diseases including the Covid-19 pandemic. Communication and cooperation with national and regional health authorities and the challenges facing health systems in developing countries were also addressed. The book includes 1 keynote, 5 invited talks, 25 oral presentations, and 8 short poster presentations from 99 international authors. All submissions were carefully and critically reviewed by at least two independent experts and at least one member of the Scientific Program Committee; a highly selective review process resulting in a full-paper rejection rate of 36%. The book will be of interest to all those involved in the design and provision of healthcare and also to patients and citizen representatives.