Guest Editorial: enabling technologies for next generation telehealthcare

The papers in this special focus on enabling technologies for next generation telehealthcare applications. The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for health and well-being is rapidly increasing in the majority of high-income countries. The interest about telehealthcare allows the provisioning of various kinds of health-related services and applications over the Internet. There are several benefits associated with tele-healthcare, including: the reduction of infection risk due to optimized patients access to clinical centers; optimized healthcare workflows; containment of hospital costs; increased patient safety; improves in the quality of life of both patients and their families. Common telehealthcare applications include tele-nursing, tele-rehabilitation, tele-dialog, tele-monitoring, tele-analysis, tele-pharmacy, tele-care, tele-psychiatry, tele-radiology, tele-pathology, teledermatology, tele-dentistry, tele-audiology, tele-ophthalmology, etc. In the past ten years, key enabling technologies (KETs) such as Internet of Things (IoT), tools for big data management and processing, Cloud/Edge/Fog computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain reached an advanced maturity, and therefore the potential for revolutionizing the whole tele-healthcare sector