Scripps Translational Science Institute, Nature Research launch open-access digital medicine journal

By Anna Andersen

The emerging field of digital medicine has the potential to transform healthcare on a global scale. Pioneering studies are being conducted to generate the clinical evidence necessary to drive widespread adoption of digital health solutions, both within a clinical setting and by consumers.

To support the dissemination of these studies, researchers from the Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have launched an open-access, peer-reviewed online journal—npj Digital Medicine. The new publication is a collaboration between STSI and Nature Research, a portfolio of high-quality journals and services and part of Springer Nature, a leading global research, educational and professional publisher.

The editors-in-chief of npj Digital Medicine are Eric Topol, MD, a TSRI professor and the director of STSI, and Steven Steinhubl, MD, STSI’s director of Digital Medicine. Both are leaders in this new field of research.

“We see this journal as a service we’re able to provide to the community in order to accelerate the development and implementation of digital health solutions and to engage individuals from a broad range of sectors,” says Steinhubl.

In the inaugural editorial, Topol and Steinhubl define digital medicine as the use of “digital tools to upgrade the practice of medicine to one that is high-definition and far more individualized.” Technologies such as biosensors, smartphones, cloud computing and artificial intelligence make it possible to digitize human beings, gathering health data on an individual level in real time.

Digital medicine, however, encompasses more than the devices that enable the collection and transfer of health data. The field merges a wide range of specialties including computer science, clinical care, engineering, behavioral science, ethics and many more. npj Digital Medicine aims to provide a platform that allows stakeholders from all backgrounds to discuss topics and research findings in an academic, evidence-based environment.

“We’re seeing a shift toward a democratization of medicine,” says Topol. “These are early days for digital medicine, but research in this field is thriving. We hope that npj Digital Medicine will become a reliable resource for clinicians, researchers and even patients, for reliable information about how digital technologies can transform care.”

npj Digital Medicine can be viewed online at https://www.nature.com/npjdigitalmed/

Send comments to: press[at]scripps.edu

“We hope that npj Digital Medicine* will become a reliable resource for clinicians, researchers and even patients, for reliable information about how digital technologies can transform care.”*

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Scripps Translational Science Institute, Nature Research launch open-access digital medicine journal