+++Submission Deadline: 09. August 2024
Special Issue on “AI and Robotic Systems in Healthcare”
**Call for Papers: AI and Robotics in Healthcare**
**Call for Papers: KI und Robotik im Gesundheitswesen**
The healthcare sector is currently characterised by a wide range of challenges. Particularly noteworthy are the shortage of skilled workers, the ageing of society and thus the increase in chronic diseases as well as pandemics and post-infectious diseases, which present us with serious organisational challenges. At the same time, we are experiencing the development of new diagnostic, therapeutic and care approaches through the use of innovative technologies which seem promising.
Applications based on AI and robotics in healthcare appear promising for enabling the early detection of diseases or making them safer. Robotic applications in care are associated with the hope of finding socio-technical solutions that help to alleviate the shortage of skilled labour and ensure or improve the quality of care in old age and illness. Innovative decision support systems are intended to relieve specialists of administrative and documentary tasks and thus allow more freedom for medical and nursing professionals to interact with patients.
However, current research findings show that the research, development, implementation and evaluation of socio-technical systems based on complex algorithms are extremely demanding and, in addition to special opportunities, also entail a large number of serious challenges. For example, the integration of AI into clinical decision-making processes raises important questions regarding data quality, accuracy, and ethical aspects. Medical decision-making processes in diagnostics, treatment planning and outcome prediction are coupled with questions about the ethical implications of AI, including issues of bias, transparency, agency and accountability. In nursing, the question arises as to how the datafication of nursing work can succeed in such a way that, on the one hand, it strikes a good balance between automated processes and human attention and, on the other hand, is able to positively support the quality of care for patients and the quality of work for nursing staff. This raises the question of how these technologies can support nursing staff in their demanding roles, improve patient care and tackle the shortage of skilled labour.
This Special Issue aims to contribute to the exploration of balanced and nuanced design approaches of AI- and robotics-based systems from an HCI perspective. Possible topics include but are not limited to:
- Case studies and evaluations of AI and robotic systems in healthcare in different target groups and application contexts (e.g. citizens, patient authorities, organisations, companies);
- Ethical, legal and social implications of AI and robotic systems in healthcare
- Methodological contributions, e.g. on participatory design and co-design approaches in healthcare
- Datafication of medical and nursing practices
- Requirements for data literacy and/or digital literacy and/or health literacy in the context of researching and using AI and robotic systems in healthcare
- Working with data in healthcare
We welcome a broad range of contribution types, such as systematisation of knowledge (survey) research, conceptual and methodological research, qualitative and participatory empirical research, and design and evaluation research. This special issue aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art in AI and robotics in healthcare, highlighting both the potential and the challenges of these technologies. By addressing critical topics such as the unique kind of nursing work, the intricacies of medical decision-making, and the development of hybrid systems, we hope to foster a deeper understanding of how AI and robotics can contribute to a more effective, ethical, and compassionate healthcare system. Submissions should offer insightful analyses, innovative solutions, and practical recommendations for advancing the research on integration of AI and robotics in healthcare.
Deadlines
- 09.08.2024 Deadline for Submission
- 08.09. 2024 First Round of Notifications
- 01.10.2024 Camera-Ready Submission
Submission
All submissions must be in English and should represent the original work of the authors with a length of 5.000-10.000 words. Reviewers will be instructed to weigh the contribution of a paper relative to its length if the provided word limit is exceeded. Improved versions of papers previously published in conference proceedings are welcome, provided that no copyright limitations exist.
For information about how to submit manuscripts, see https://i-com-journal.org/calls/ – Regarding Article Processing Fees, the publisher is calling for published articles: We have some sponsoring for this available – so if your institution does not pay for APCs in Golden Open Access journals, do not hesitate to contact the Editor in Chief – We will find a way to cover the costs.
Guest Editors
- Claudia Müller, University of Siegen
- Tim Weiler, University of Siegen
- Alina Huldtgren, University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf
- Manfred Hülsken-Giesler, University of Osnabrück
- Richard Paluch, University of Siegen
- Marco Eichelberg, OFFIS e.V., Oldenburg
- Alexander Hein, OFFIS e.V., Oldenburg
- Sibylle Meyer, SIBIS Institute for social research and project consulting, Berlin