SPECIAL COLLECTION 2026/2027

​Aims and Scope
The future of CPD (Continuing Professional Development) lies in harmonizing the rapid pace of innovation with the enduring need for human connection. As healthcare evolves, CPD must not only disseminate emerging science and technology but also foster the relationships, empathy, and teamwork that underpin effective patient care. This special collection explores how CPD can prepare healthcare professionals and organizations to thrive in a landscape shaped by both digital transformation and the irreplaceable value of human engagement. We especially welcome manuscripts that show how digital transformation can enhance, not replace, human relationships, and how global collaboration and equity in CPD are strengthened through genuine interpersonal connection.

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key Themes

Future-Ready CPD: Empowering Teams Through Lifelong Learning, Wellbeing, and Trust
Future-ready CPD empowers healthcare teams through collaborative learning, continuous upskilling, and a strong focus on wellbeing. By integrating technology to enhance teamwork and offering flexible formats like microcredentialing, CPD encourages professionals to adapt to change. Above all, CPD strengthens human connection by fostering open communication, mutual support, and shared purpose among team members. Engagement, resilience, and ethical integrity are prioritized, ensuring CPD remains a trusted, transparent resource that deepens relationships and elevates the quality of care.

 

Quality-Driven Leadership: Advancing Safe, Effective Care Through Strategic Change
A future-ready CPD must prioritize the continuous improvement of healthcare professionals, teams, and organizations by creating collaborative opportunities that foster authentic human connection. By guiding the adoption of new tools and protocols with evidence-based strategies, CPD ensures coordinated approaches to patient safety and care quality, while also nurturing the relationships, empathy, and trust that are foundational to effective teamwork. Integrating critical thinking, ethical judgment, and compassion into every innovation, CPD should prepare professionals for leadership roles and effective change management through training in strategic thinking, communication, and adaptive leadership. In doing so, CPD supports transformation in a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, ensuring that technological advancement is always balanced with the irreplaceable value of human engagement and interpersonal understanding.
 

Advancing Equitable, Sustainable Health for Communities Through CPD
Future-ready CPD serves as a catalyst for advancing patient and community health by leveraging data and digital platforms to identify needs and track outcomes, while actively engaging communities through culturally sensitive, person-centered approaches. To ensure innovation benefits all, CPD must actively address disparities in healthcare education and practice. Integrating sustainability and environmental health into CPD prepares healthcare professionals and teams to respond to the growing impact of environmental factors on patient care and public health. By uniting these priorities, and by fostering genuine human connection through empathy, trust, and collaborative relationships, CPD empowers professionals and organizations to build healthier, more equitable, and sustainable communities. Human connection is at the heart of effective CPD, enabling healthcare teams to share experiences, support one another, and work together to address the unique needs of every community.
 

Responsible Innovation and Digital Empowerment in CPD
Future-ready CPD accelerates the adoption of new knowledge and technologies but always places human connection at the center of progress. By equipping healthcare professionals to critically analyze and implement the latest research, CPD ensures that innovation is guided by empathy, collaboration, and shared purpose. Digital solutions are taught not only to streamline workflows and improve efficiency, but also to enhance the quality of patient interactions and strengthen relationships among care teams. As digital transformation continues, CPD integrates essential digital literacy skills, such as data privacy, cybersecurity, and ethical use of artificial intelligence, while prioritizing trust, compassion, and open communication. This approach ensures that technological advancement is ethically grounded and always supports the enduring bonds between professionals, patients, and communities.
 

Global Equity and Community Health Advancement Through Collaborative CPD
Future-ready CPD accelerates healthcare innovation and improves outcomes by fostering international collaboration and sharing best practices across borders. By building global networks and encouraging cross-cultural learning, CPD programs are better equipped to address complex healthcare challenges. While cultivating genuine human connection, CPD must actively design accessible programming, working to reduce bias in both content and delivery. Through empathetic engagement and collaborative relationships, CPD ensures that the benefits of innovation reach all communities. Leveraging data and digital platforms to identify needs and track outcomes is most effective when paired with person-centered, culturally sensitive approaches that honor the unique experiences of individuals and communities. By empowering professionals and organizations to connect, share, and support one another, CPD advances patient and community health on a global scale, with human connection as the foundation for lasting impact.​

 

Who should submit?

We invite authors from all sectors of healthcare and continuing education to contribute to this special collection. Whether your expertise lies in technology, clinical practice, education, or organizational leadership, your insights are vital to shaping future-ready CPD that balances innovation with human connection. Manuscripts that share evidence, experiences, and strategies for achieving this balance are especially welcome.

​

Article types and Article Publishing Charges (APC)

Submissions can range from detailed research articles and case studies to brief commentaries. The types of articles that will be accepted and the APC (excluding VAT or other local taxes where applicable) are outlined below
(check the Information for Authors page for up-to-date pricing):

• "Research Article" up to 4,000 words (EUR 1,615 / USD 1,680 /GBP 1,344)

• "Review Article" / "Systematic Review" up to 4,000 words (EUR 1,615 / USD 1,680 /GBP 1,344)

• “Brief Report” up to 2,500 words (EUR 965 / USD 1,060)

• “Comment” up to 1,000 words (EUR 965 / USD 1,060 or free with prior approval from the guest editor)

Waivers and discounts are available, especially for authors from Low and Low-Middle Income countries,
more information can be found here.

​

Submission deadline and publication 

The deadline for submission is 31 December 2027.

Articles will be processed and published as they are accepted.

​​

From the guest editors

View the letter from the guest editors below for more information.​