This year we are organizing the 18^th ICOST conference which succeeded in bringing together a community from different continents over more than a decade and half and raised the awareness of frail and dependant people's quality of life in our societies.

After seventeen successful conferences held in France (2003), Singapore (2004), Canada(2005), Northern Ireland (2006), Japan (2007), Singapore (2008), France (2009), Korea (2010), Canada (2011), Italy (2012), Singapore (2013), USA (2014), Switzerland (2015), China (2016), France (2017), Singapore (2018) and USA (2019), ICOST 2020 edition will be for the first time hosted in the African continent ), in Hammamet, Tunisia, from 24^th to 26^th June 2020. The conference will be organized by the Digital Research Center of Sfax, Tunisia (CRNS), Institut Mines-Telecom, Paris, France, and the Laboratory on Development and Control of Distributed Applications of Sfax, Tunisia (REDCAD). Our theme for this year will be "The Digital Technologies Impact on Public Health in Developed and Developing Countries"

ICOST provides a premier venue for the presentation and discussion of research in the design, development, deployment and evaluation of Artificial intelligence for health, Smart Urban Environments, Assistive Technologies, Chronic Disease Management, Coaching and Health Telematics systems. Submitted papers will be blind reviewed by an international committee bringing together a multidisciplinary experts’ renown worldwide in different field of research (Engineering, clinical, public health, humanities and social sciences, etc.). Accepted papers will be published by Springer as Open Access. Selected papers will be invited to submit extended version to be published in a Special Issue of Sensors-MDPI Open-Access Journal (Impact Factor 3.031). The conference features a dynamic program incorporating a range of technical, clinical, and industrial related keynote speakers, plenary oral sessions, and poster presentations along with prototypes demonstrations and technical exhibits. ICOST brings together stakeholders from clinical, PHOs (Public Health Organizations), academics, NGOs, policy makers, and industrial perspectives to explore how to utilize technologies to foster future health management and prevention, independent living, offering an enhanced quality of life. ICOST 2020 invites all participants to share and discuss their experiences and lessons learned.

We look forward to welcoming you to ICOST2020 in Hammamet!