The Case for Computational Health Science

In this introductory paper, we begin by making the case for Computational Health Science, which we define as the interdisciplinary efforts of health scientists, computer scientists, engineers, psychologists, and other social scientists, to conduct innovative research that will inform future practice directed at changing health behavior through improved communication, networking, and social capital. We recognize and discuss some of the main challenges involved with such an enterprise, but also highlight the associated benefits, which, we argue, significantly outweigh them. We then provide a brief summary of the contributions to this first Special Issue on Computational Health Science.