Digital health should get in on Health Affairs innovation action

The policy journal Health Affairs puts out an e-mail update every Sunday, for those of us who can’t get enough of reading work e-mail during the week. Today’s contained the following solicitation:

Health Affairs is planning a theme issue on health care and medical innovation in early-2015. The issue will span the fields of medical technology and public policy as well as private sector innovations that promote improvements in the delivery of care, lower costs, increased efficiency, etc. We plan to publish 15-20 peer-reviewed articles including research, analyses, and commentaries from leading researchers and scholars, analysts, industry experts, and health and health care stakeholders.

We invite interested authors to submit abstracts for consideration for this issue. To be considered, abstracts must be submitted by Wednesday, June 25, 2014. We regret that we will not be able to consider any abstracts submitted after that date. Editors will review the abstracts and, for those that best fit our vision and goals, invite authors to submit papers for consideration for the issue. Invited papers will be due at the journal by September 2, 2014.

Abstract submission requirements. Abstract submissions should not exceed 500 words, and should include (in this order): proposed title, author names and affiliations, abstract, name and contact information for the corresponding author below the abstract. Please consult our online guidelines for additional formatting instructions. http://www.healthaffairs.org/Abstract_Submission_FAQ.php

If you wish to submit an abstract, please send it as an e-mail attachment to abstracts_innovation@projecthope.org (note: there is an underscore between “abstracts” and “innovation”).

We thank you for your time and consideration. Please feel free to pass this invitation along to colleagues who might be interested. If you have questions about this request, please contact Senior Deputy Editor, Sarah Dine, at sdine@projecthope.org.

Presumably, a lot of the submissions will come from traditional medical device manufacturers, the pharma industry and managed care, but this seems like a perfect opportunity for some from the realm of digital health to prove that they really are disruptive, game-changing, revolutionary or any of a number of buzzwords and clichés the marketing people like to throw around.

The June 25 deadline doesn’t leave a lot of time, but that’s just to submit an abstract. The full description can come later. So get to work, digital health innovators. It’s time to prove to the establishment that your ideas are real and effective.

Click here for more information.

If you’re looking for my writing this week, I’ll be at WTN Media’s Digital Health Conference in Madison, Wis., Tuesday and Wednesday, helping WTN with its coverage. I’ve got to write at least three stories from that conference, which will be my priority once the meeting starts, though that doesn’t preclude me from posting elsewhere once that work is done.