Health Care Management Science
Special Issue on
“Smart Technologies for Improving the Quality of Mobile Health Care”

Aim
Smart technologies are technologies that use electronic devices or systems that can be connected to the Internet, used interactively, and are to some extent intelligent. Smart technologies have been applied to mobile health care. For examples, mobile guides, such as Google Maps, lead users’ ways after detecting their locations using GPS, so that they can get to destinations as soon as possible, thereby increasing their comfort and reducing their tiredness. Smart watches have full mobile phone capability and are equipped with a lot of sensors, such as thermometer and heart rate monitor, to monitor and help maintain users’ physical conditions that can be conveyed to the backend server for further diagnosis. Apps have been developed to recommend a patient on the move to the nearest clinic that provides the required treatment and satisfies the patient’s preferences. In a smart hospital, wireless sensors are attached to patients on the move to collect real-time information such as their pulses and oxygen saturation readings. Some smart technologies can even overcome the limitations of the existing technologies. For example, smart glasses use video cameras and LED arrays to assist people with extremely bad vision. Some smart glasses speak so that blind people can “hear” the visual space around them. Obviously, the applications of smart technologies have improved the quality of mobile health care.
For the aforementioned reasons, this special issue is intended to provide technical details of smart technologies for improving the quality of mobile health care, with special emphases on the quantification of the quality of mobile health care, the effects of a smart technology application, and the relationship between them. These details will hold great interest for researchers in health care, smart technology, quality technology, quantitative management, ambient intelligence, mobile commerce, operations research, system science, and information management, as well as for practicing managers and engineers. This special issue features a balance between state-of-the-art research and practical applications. This special issue also provides a forum for researchers and practitioners to review and disseminate quality research work on smart technologies for improving the quality of mobile health care and the critical issues for further development.

Topics
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Smart technologies for mobile health care service recommendation
- Smart technologies for better awareness when searching for health care services
- Smart technologies for better efficiency when accessing a health care service
- Smart technologies for finding more suitable health care services
- Quantification of the quality of a mobile health care service: User-responded outcomes/Interviewing/Questionnaire survey; Structural equation modeling; Biometry/Biostatistics; Kano model; Soft computing
- Smart technologies for improving the quality of a mobile health care service
- Smart technologies for load balancing among mobile health care services
- Smart technologies for increasing the preparedness of a mobile health care service
- Smart clinics and hospitals
- Smart service networks for mobile health care
- Wirelessly connected smart systems for mobile heath care
- Interactive smart systems for mobile health care
- Predictive smart systems for mobile health care
- Cost-effectiveness analysis of a smart technology application to mobile health care
- Optimization issues in a smart technology application to mobile health care
- Other related topics

Target Dates (Tentative)
Submission Deadline: December 31, 2017
Notification of the Initial Decision: March 31, 2018
Notification of Acceptance: June 30, 2018
Final Paper Due: August 31, 2018

Submission Guidelines
Quality and originality of the contribution are the main acceptance criteria. Manuscripts must be submitted online:
https://www.editorialmanager.com/hcms
Choose: SI: Smart Technologies for Mobile Health Care

For journal information and author guidelines, please visit
http://www.springer.com/business+%26+management/operations+research/journal/10729#

Guest Editors
Tin-Chih Toly Chen, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor
Department of Industrial Engineering and Systems Management
Feng Chia University
100, Wenhwa Rd., Seatwen, Taichung City, Taiwan
Founding President
Ambient Intelligence Association of Taiwan
tolychen@ms37.hinet.net; tcchen@fcu.edu.tw
http://tolychen.myweb.hinet.net

W. Art Chaovalitwongse
Professor and 21st Century Research Leadership Chair
Industrial Engineering
University of Arkansas
USA
artchao@uark.edu

Professor of Radiology, School of Medicine
Associate Director, Integrated Brain Imaging Center (IBIC)
University of Washington, Seattle
USA

Michael J. O'grady, Ph.D.
UCD School of Computer Science & Informatics
University College Dublin
Belfield, Dublin 4
Ireland
michael.j.ogrady@ucd.ie

Katsuhiro Honda, Ph.D.
Professor
Human Information System Lab.
Graduate School of Engineering
Osaka Prefecture University
Gakuencho 1-1, Nakaku, Sakai, Osaka, 599-8531, Japan
honda@cs.osakafu-u.ac.jp
http://www.cs.osakafu-u.ac.jp/hi/honda/index.html