===================== CALL FOR PAPERS ====================================

Special Issue on Designing for Healthy Living

International Journal of Medical Informatics (Elsevier)

Submission deadline: January 29, 2011

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SYNOPSIS

Chronic conditions (such as heart disease, stroke) have become the chief
causes of death globally. The World Health Organization predicts that by
2030, three-quarters of all deaths in the world will be due to such chronic
non-communicable diseases. Over 70 per cent of cardiovascular disease
deaths and around 50 per cent of all chronic disease deaths are
attributable to a small number of risk factors, which include: unhealthy
diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use and high blood pressure. Globally,
these factors are increasing as people switch to foods high in fats, salt
and sugars, while their work and living situations make them much less
physically active. Over 1.6 billion adults worldwide are overweight and it
is projected that by 2015, the number could reach 2.3 billion. Tobacco use
is also increasing in low-income and middle-income countries. It is
interesting to note that the aforementioned risk factors are few and are
lifestyle modifiable. The lifestyle that people adopt can therefore
negatively or positively influence their health and wellbeing. The above
discussion clearly points to an opportunity for design solutions that
empower people to manage or change their lifestyles, and address their
health conditions. Designing ICT solutions for healthy living however poses
various relatively unique challenges, including the following:

- It is often very difficult to have access to and interact with health
professionals and patients in their settings. There are usually strict
research governance procedures that have to be completed before patients
or health professionals can be involved in research studies.

- Users in the healthy living sector are often very diverse, for instance
in terms of their age and computer literacy. Some users, such as senior
citizens and young children, may have limited capability to read,
understand, and act on healthy living instructions.

- Designing engaging and persuasive interfaces that keep people motivated
to achieve healthy living goals can be challenging.

- Healthy living vocabulary is often complex to patients and stakeholders
such as software developers and designers.

- Some health living tasks are complex, cognitively demanding or sensitive.
In such situations, it may therefore be dangerous, distracting, or
inappropriate for the researcher to engage the user (such as patient or
nurse) in the way that is required.

This special issue intends to solicit high-quality design solutions and
efforts for supporting healthy living. The special issue follows a
successful workshop titled Designing for Healthy Living, held at the
Australian Computer-Human Interaction conference (OZCHI 2009) in November
2009 that brought together researchers and practitioners working in healthy
living.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

We are inviting the research community to submit original research papers
whose topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- Online social networks for healthy living
- User modeling and personalization in healthy living
- Mobile and ubiquitous computing for healthy living
- Context awareness in healthy living
- Persuasive technologies and healthy living
- Gaming for healthy living
- Information visualization for healthy living
- Designing for healthy families
- Emotional and motivational support applications
- Health care applications
- Computer Supported Cooperative Healthcare

We are soliciting research papers that report on actual implementations and
evaluations. Authors of the OZCHI 2009 workshop papers can submit extended
and updated versions of their workshop papers for consideration.

SUBMISSION AND FORMAT

Paper submission and review process will be handled through Elsevier's
Editorial System (EES) at: http://ees.elsevier.com/ijmi

Papers should be original and must not exceed 20 pages. Authors should
prepare their papers in line with the International Journal of Medical
Informatics formatting guidelines. The guidelines are under the link "guide
for authors". Papers should be submitted using EES by clicking the link
"submit paper". Make sure that you select "Designing for Healthy Living"
when you reach the "Article Type" step in the submission process. If you do
not have an existing account with EES, you will need to register first by
clicking either the link "register" or "Register Now".

For EES-related queries, please write to: authorsupport@elsevier.com

For queries regarding the special issue, the special issue managing editors
can be contacted at: nilufar.baghaei@gmail.com or stephen.kimani@gmail.com

IMPORTANT DATES
- January 29, 2011: Paper submission deadline
- March 18, 2011: Peer reviews completed
- July 29, 2011: Deadline for submitting camera ready of accepted papers
- October 2011: Journal publication

MANAGING EDITORS
Stephen Kimani, Tasmanian ICT Centre, CSIRO, Australia
Nilufar Baghaei, Tasmanian ICT Centre, CSIRO, Australia

EDITORIAL TEAM

The editorial team will comprise, among others: Stephen Intille (MIT, USA),
Alan Dix (Lancaster University, UK), Harri Oinas-Kukkonen, (University of
Oulu, Finland), Judith Masthoff (University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK),
Gordon Baxter (University of St Andrews, UK), and Silvia Gabrielli
(CREATE-NET, Italy).