Digital medicine: Emergence, definition, scope, and future

Abstract

Shaoxiang Zhang, Ph.D., M.D., designed and founded the journal of Digital Medicine as editor-in chief. At Digital Medicine, Dr. Zhang's responsibilities include oversight of all editorial content and policies. His editorial background includes service as an editor-in-chief or associate editor or editorial board member for 15 academic journals including Clinical Anatomy, PLoS ONE, Chinese Journal of Regional Anatomy, Chinese Journal of Anatomy and Clinical Anatomy. A famous specialist in digital medicine and human anatomy, Dr. Zhang maintains an active research program. He is the principal investigator of the Chinese Visible Human Project, and more than 20 scientific projects else supported by National Science Foundation of China, including several key grant projects. He is a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China, and the “National Excellent Talent”. Dr. Zhang has published more than 400 articles (over 60 are published in worldwide reputed SCI journals) and 21 books on topics such as human anatomy and digital medicine. His publications have received more than 2800 citations. In 2005, he was invited to deliver the keynote speech on the Chinese Visible Human Project at the 4th Joint Meeting of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists and the British Association of Clinical Anatomists. He won the second prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award twice (in 2001 and 2007) for his contributions to the study of hand surgery and to the study of digital human dataset and its application, respectively. Dr. Zhang is the Distinguished Professor of digital medicine at the Institute of Digital Medicine and professor of human anatomy at the College of Basic Medicine of the Third Military Medical University. He took the lead to establish a digital-human-based anatomy teaching system and promote Digital Medicine to emerge as a new interdiscipline in China. Dr. Zhang has served as a leading scientist in numerous academic societies and committees, including the Chinese Society for Anatomical Sciences, Chinese Society of Digital Medicine, Discipline Appraisal Group of the Academic Degree Committee of the State Council, Expert Committee of Human Anatomy and Digital Anatomy in China, Chongqing Association of Digital Medicine and Chongqing Institute of Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Zhang received his medical degree from the Third Medical Military University. He had been the former Vice President of the Third Military Medical University (2006-2013). He has been the chairman of the Chinese Society for Anatomical Sciences since 2014 and the chairman of the Chinese Society of Digital Medicine since its foundation in 2011.

Healthcare professionals’ competence in digitalisation: A systematic review

“…The WHO () considers competence in digitalisation as part of human capital which requires perpetual education to keep existing skills in line with technological development and new knowledge. An associated concept, digital health, can be defined as the application of theoretical, technological and methodological competence to solve health preventative, diagnostic and treatment problems through integrating digital technology into healthcare (Aakhus, Ågerfalk, & Lennmyr, ; Zhang et al, ). A problem is that competence is a controversial concept and there is little consensus about its nature, but here it is regarded as a holistic combination of the knowledge, performance, skills, values and/or attitudes (Cowan, Norman, & Coopamah, ) required for effective performance of specified tasks or activities.…”

“…Previous investigations of the inclusion of digitalisation in patient care (Sewerin, Ostendorf, Hueber, & Kleyer, ) and medicine (Kuhn, Frankenhauser, & Tolks, ; Zhang et al, ) have strongly focused on aspects related to medical science. However, identified obstacles to effective digitalisation in healthcare include incompatible or obstructive stakeholder‐specific interests and organisational structures (Nohl‐Deryk et al, ).…”

Digital Health and Healthcare Quality: A Primer on the Evolving 4th Industrial Revolution

“…Digital Health (DH) is an evolving multidisciplinary scientific field that seeks to monitor medical problems while also preventing new ones with the ultimate aim of improving the overall quality of health. [1,2] These means of information technology can be applied through mobile health (mHealth), telehealth/telemedicine, activity trackers, personal wearables, and remote monitoring, and represent an interplay of the art and science of medicine to achieve overall improvement in health. [2] Due to its broad nature, DH is usually used interchangeably with health information technology (HIT).…”

Data Handling for E-Mental Health Professionals

“…Telepsychiatry is “the delivery of health care and the exchange of health information for purposes of providing psychiatric services across distances,” 11 while digital medicine (of which digital psychiatry is a part) is “all the theory, knowledge, technology, and methodology which are involved in solving medical problems using modern digital technology in basic science, clinical medicine, preventive medicine, and so forth, to increase our understanding of life phenomena and the nature of disease as well as to improve clinical diagnosis and treatment.” 12 …”