Christopher J. James
I am honoured to be writing an editorial for this, the first issue of Healthcare Technology Letters. This new initiative from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) comes at an exciting time within the field of healthcare technology, which has never seen so many new developments both in basic research as well as in the varied fields of application. The IET's journals have a pedigree in announcing to the world novel discoveries and developments in fields such as electronics, communications and all the other major disciplines within engineering. Healthcare technology, which can be seen as a subset of the wider biomedical engineering field, is very much a multi-disciplinary endeavor – where basic research from various fields is brought together with novel applications, and domain specific knowledge, from a wide range of medical, biological and clinical specialties. This journal will provide a one-stop shop for researchers wanting to be kept abreast of the latest developments in this fast changing field. The Letters format allows for the quick turnaround of succinct papers delivering a strong message about novel technologies, applications or studies within healthcare technology.
The field of healthcare technology involves both hardware and software, and the design of novel sensing devices and advanced algorithms for predicting, detecting, and enhancing measurements. It deals with the diagnosis and prognosis of disease, and involves disciplines such as measurement, signal processing, imaging, communications and so on. With the advent of faster and smaller platforms capable of processing large amounts of data for longer – in essence with the proliferation of digital technologies – healthcare technology is covering exciting new ground. Wearable and implantable technologies are now common-place, giving rise to terms such as eHealth and mHealth. Advances in battery technologies have had a major impact on the field by allowing larger amounts of data to be extracted and stored or transmitted for longer. This means that, whereas in previous years irregular snapshots of health (or more likely, illness) were only available to inform on a diagnosis or prognosis, these days continuous monitoring is quite possible and actively pursued. These advances in themselves have resulted in a change in the field itself – suddenly we find ourselves no longer dealing with just ‘illness’, we are now more and more interested in ‘wellness’, with technologies developed to promote wellness, change behaviour, and influence future wellbeing – well before illness takes hold.
Healthcare Technology Letters, or HTL for short, is all of the above and more; the variety in the application domains, methodologies, and healthcare paradigms forms a major strength of this journal. Coupled with peer-review, constructive feedback to authors and rapid publication, this means that HTL will always be at the cutting edge of high-quality research in this field. Open access options for authors also ensure that the journal is compliant with the publishing requirements of all funding bodies. The journal is supported by an international Editorial Board of experts that cover different aspects of healthcare technology, including some that have a clinical background. Together we have a very strong team that will allow us to cover all the different directions in which healthcare technology might go.
With this first issue now published, we are looking forward to establishing and growing the journal and we invite research groups large and small from across the globe to contribute their latest advances. We will also endeavor to further push at the boundaries of healthcare technology by inviting articles from world-renowned experts in new and ground-breaking areas, as well as running special issues on hot topics. It is my firm intention that HTL becomes a resource for the medical industry and a way of keeping abreast of new ideas and developments. Moreover, it should be influencing policy makers at a global level, providing timely information on an international scale.
I would like to thank the IET for inviting me to be the first editor-in-chief for this exciting journal; it is a significant responsibility, and one which I do not take lightly. The expertise and outreach of the Editorial Board has been invaluable in making the launch a success and I would like to thank each member for their continued support. We have received submissions from all corners of the globe and on a variety of topics within the healthcare technology field, and I am very pleased to see the growing interest in this new journal. I would like to thank the authors that have already contributed to Healthcare Technology Letters and I hope that the journal will play a part in the dissemination of more of their excellent work in the future. Finally I would like to thank the reviewers that have given up their valuable time to assess the contributions and provide constructive feedback to the authors to assist them with the continual improvement of their research.
This is an exciting time for research in healthcare technology. I invite you all to be a part of HTL and to share your research outputs through this journal, so that together we can create a unique forum for the rapid exchange of the latest ideas and innovations and help shape the future of healthcare technology research.
Christopher James was born in Malta, received the B.Elec.Eng. (Hons) degree in from the University of Malta (1992) and a Ph.D from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand (1997). He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the EEG department of the Montreal Neurological Institute, of McGill University, Montreal, Canada (1997–1998); and a postdoctoral research fellow (1998–2001), and then Lecturer (2001–2003) with the Neural Computing Research Group of Aston University, Birmingham, UK. From 2004–2010 he was a Reader in Biomedical Signal Processing at the University of Southampton, UK. During 2010–2013 he was appointed Professor of Healthcare Technology and was founding Director of the Institute of Digital Healthcare at the University of Warwick, UK. He now has a chair in Biomedical Engineering and is Director of Warwick Engineering in Biomedicine at the University of Warwick.
Professor James is a biomedical engineer and his research activity centers on the development of biomedical signal and pattern processing techniques, as well as the use of technological innovations, for use in advancing healthcare and promoting wellbeing. Neural engineering forms a large part of his work, as to date his work has concentrated on the development of advanced processing techniques applied to the analysis of the electromagnetic activity of the human brain, primarily in Brain-Computer Interfacing. He has published over 160 papers in neural engineering in varied biomedical engineering journals and refereed conferences.
Professor James is a past-chairman of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) UK & Republic of Ireland (UKRI) Section, Chair of the IEEE UKRI Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBS) Chapter, and a past member of IEEE the EMBS Administrative Committee as Europe Representative. He was on the council of the European Alliance of Medical and Biological Engineering Societies (EAMBES). He is past Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Healthcare Technology Network and on the IET Technical and Professional Networks Steering Committee. He is also on the Royal Academy of Engineering's Panel for Biomedical Engineering. In 2012 he was awarded the IET Sir Monty Finniston Achievement Award for his work in the Biomedical Engineering field.
Professor James was Series Editor for the Biomedical Signals and Systems book series of Artech House Publishers; Editor-in-Chief of the Open Medical Informatics Journal, and Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. He sits on the editorial advisory board for IEEE Spectrum magazine, he is Associate Editor of the IEEE EMBS Conference Editorial Board (Neural Engineering Theme) and he has been actively involved in many IEEE EMBS committees – mainly on student activities.