Wearable devices, such as smartbands and smartwatches, are available for real-time monitoring of its wearer’s activities and vital signs. Most of these wearable devices connect to smartphones or mobile devices that collect data and process it to extract information such as daily physical activities and health conditions. This information motivates the wearer to develop healthy habits and exercise. Additionally, the data can be shared with healthcare providers and caregivers, who can monitor health conditions of the weatet for providing better advice and services. For example, the condition of people with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, and cerebral palsy may be monitored in real time by caregivers and doctors. Moreover, such data can be utilized to determine accurate dosage for medication of patients with hypertension and diabetes.

While millions of people are using wearable devices for tracking fitness activities, very few people are using them for healthcare. This is because of two major problems: (1) extraction of information from sensor-data is a relatively challenging task for consumer, medical professionals, and healthcare personnel and (2) typical wearable devices may not be equipped with sensors for measuring vital health signs. A solution to the second problem would be to embed appropriate sensors for the desired applications into these devices. However, it is more challenging to solve the first problem, because these sensors would require algorithms for mining useful information in the data collected.

This special issue seeks novel state-of-the-art contributions in the area of wearable sensing devices and mobile applications for healthcare, addressing these challenges. This includes contributions about communications between wearable technology and mobile devices, data-mining software for mobile applications, methodological contributions about how to develop mobile applications for applying wearable technology to healthcare, and novel mobile applications for healthcare by means of wearable technology.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Integration of novel wearable devices in healthcare mobile information systems
• Integration of green or self-powered wearable sensing devices in mobile information systems
• Methods for mining information from datasets collected from wearable technology
• Development of user interface for reporting health information
• Frameworks for developing mobile applications for mobile devices
• Novel mobile applications for alerting and advising patients with neurological diseases
• Methodologies for developing wearable technology applications
• Security measures for communication between wearable technology and mobile applications
• Privacy of health data communication between wearable technology and mobile devices
• Interactive multiagent system applications for patients or caregivers based on the information derived from wearable technology
• Privacy of sharing health data between clients, health professionals, and caregivers
• Responsibility of health professionals when using big personal tracking data
• Development of physical sensors for data collection in mobile information systems
• Deep learning techniques for processing data in mobile information systems