Interdisciplinary Explorations in Health and Healthcare: Addressing Complex Challenges for Sustainable Futures

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Sustainability is dedicated to exploring the interdisciplinary approaches necessary for preparing for the next pandemic, alongside advancing emerging healthcare technologies, ensuring healthcare ethics, addressing health disparities, enhancing health literacy, alleviating disease and suffering, incorporating patient voice in public health research, improving healthcare access, shaping health policy, and addressing environmental health. Each area of focus is examined in relation to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are to foster sustainable health systems and practices that benefit global communities. Some potential topics include: 

Preparing for the next pandemic is crucial for achieving SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being. This issue will feature research on global health preparedness, response strategies, and resilient health systems capable of withstanding future health crises. Emphasis will be placed on collaborative international efforts, innovative technologies, and robust health infrastructures that enhance global health security.

Addressing disease and suffering aligns with SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being. Research in this issue will cover preventive measures, innovative treatments, and palliative care strategies that alleviate suffering and enhance quality of life, emphasizing sustainable healthcare practices that provide long-term benefits.

Emerging healthcare technologies are pivotal for advancing SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure. This issue will highlight breakthroughs in medical technology, including telehealth, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology, demonstrating how these innovations contribute to more effective, efficient, and accessible healthcare systems, ultimately improving health outcomes and sustainability.

Including patient voice in public health research supports SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. By incorporating patients' perspectives into research, this issue highlights the value of patient-centered approaches in shaping public health policies and interventions, ensuring that health solutions are culturally relevant and effectively address community needs.  

Healthcare ethics and informed consent in research are essential for upholding SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions. Contributions will address ethical considerations in healthcare and research, focusing on the importance of informed consent, patient autonomy, and moral frameworks that protect participants' rights and well-being and foster trust in healthcare interventions.

Health disparities directly relate to SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities. This issue will explore the socio-economic, racial, gender, and geographic factors contributing to health inequities, presenting interventions and policies designed to promote health equity, reduce disparities, and ensure that all individuals have fair access to healthcare resources.

Health literacy is fundamental to achieving SDG 4: Quality Education. Enhancing health literacy empowers individuals to make informed health decisions and navigate healthcare systems effectively. This issue will showcase educational initiatives, community engagement, and digital tools to improve health literacy, particularly in marginalized communities, ensuring equitable access to health information.

Healthcare access, a cornerstone of SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being and SDG 1: No Poverty, is crucial for improving health outcomes and reducing poverty. This issue will examine barriers to healthcare access and propose strategies to overcome them, ensuring that all individuals, regardless of their economic status, receive the care they need.

Health policy is vital in creating sustainable health systems, aligning with SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions. This issue will discuss developing and implementing health policies that promote sustainability, equity, and resilience, providing insights into how effective governance can drive health improvements and sustainable development.

Environmental health is interconnected with several SDGs, including SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, and SDG 13: Climate Action. This research will explore the health impacts of environmental factors and present sustainable practices to mitigate these effects, emphasizing the importance of environmental stewardship for public health.

The social determinants of health encompass economic stability, education, social context, and neighborhood environment, which are integral to achieving SDG 1: No Poverty, SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, and SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. This issue will investigate how these determinants influence health outcomes and present strategies to address root causes of health inequities, promoting sustainable and inclusive development.

This Special Issue aims to foster interdisciplinary collaborations that advance sustainable health solutions by aligning these diverse health domains with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Through the integration of pandemic preparedness, healthcare technologies, ethics, public health, environmental science, policy, and social sciences, we seek to contribute to the development of health systems that are equitable, resilient, and sustainable for all. 

All manuscripts in this special issue must include a section or content explaining how the paper topic intersects with or relates to a UN Sustainability Goal or Goals.

Dr. Darrell Burrell
Dr. Delores Springs
Dr. Kevin Richardson
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainable health systems
• sustainable design and health
• biotechnologies and sustainability
• food security and health
• environmental health
• environmental racism
• environmental justice
• pandemic preparedness
• patient voice in public health
• healthcare access
• health policy development
• United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• interdisciplinary health approaches
• global health security
• public health research
• health equity
• resilient health infrastructures
• sustainable healthcare practices
• global health disparities
• community health development