SCANNING THE ISSUE Global Healthcare: Advances and Challenges By MET IN AKAY Guest Editor

DESCRIPTION: Recent scientific and technological developments and innovations have significantly improved the quality of life and saved lives in the developed world. But, these developments are not introduced to the developing and underdeveloped countries. We still face unprecedented healthcare challenges in the 21st century. The prevalence of major diseases today, from the global AIDS pandemic to antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis, cuts across the healthcare, political, economic, social, and biomedical disciplines: These diseases will continue affecting the world unless major measures are taken to develop comprehensive prevention and treatment programs. Thus, engineers and scientists are expected to play a critical role in developing novel and affordable healthcare technology and medications to solve global healthcare problems, especially in the developing and underdevelop countries. The objectives of this special issue are to discuss the global healthcare systems, financing, delivery and management. We also focus on the recent technological advances in healthcare and their use in diagnosing, treating, and preventing diseases, using novel technologies to develop new drugs, technology regulation, and ethical issues surrounding the use of novel technologies. The first paper, titled ‘‘Microfluidics and Nanotechnology for Detection of Global Infectious Diseases’’ by Damhorst et al., emphasizes the emergence of microfluidics and nanotechnologies and discusses the need for the tools of the submillimeter scale to overcome the shortcomings of the existing tools to meet the needs of people worldwide for simple, accessible diagnostic tests. It also discusses the urgent need for the commercialization and translation of microand nanotechnology-based diagnostics for HIV, TB, and malaria. Finally, the paper emphasizes the potential impact of these technologies in the lives of millions of people in the world’s poorest regions that are disproportionately impacted by these life-treating infectious diseases. The second paper, titled ‘‘Advances in nanotechnology and microfluidics for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) diagnostics’’ by Tasoglu et al., focuses on the existing assays and platforms employed for HPV diagnosis, and highlights recent advances in nanotechnology and microfluidics that potentially enable new approaches for HPV diagnosis. It emphasizes the limitations of the currently used methods for rapid and inexpensive testing in large population groups and developing countries since instrumentation and technology for real-time PCR amplification is not available. It also discusses the urgent need for innovative and inexpensive diagnostic methods and platforms based on the integration of merging nanotechnologies and sensing methodologies for HPV diagnosis in clinics. The third paper, titled ‘‘Wearable Sensors For Healthier Pregnancies’’ This special issue discusses the financing, delivery, and management of global healthcare systems, and also focuses on the recent technological advances in healthcare and their use in diagnosing, treating, and preventing diseases.