JMIR Formative Research

Pregnancy is a complex period characterized by significant transformations. How a woman adapts to these changes can affect her quality of life and psychological well-being. Recently developed digital solutions have assumed a crucial role in supporting the psychological well-being of pregnant women. However, these tools have mainly been developed for women who already present clinically relevant psychological symptoms or mental disorders.

Researchers have encountered challenges in recruiting unpaid caregivers of people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias for intervention studies. However, little is known about the reasons for non-participation in in-home smarthealth interventions in community-based settings.

Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is a multifactorial, chronic syndrome involving urinary frequency, urgency, and bladder discomfort. These IC/BPS symptoms can significantly impact patients’ quality of life, affecting their mental, physical, sexual, and financial well-being. Patients sometimes rely on peer-to-peer support to understand the disease and find methods of alleviating symptoms. The only FDA-approved medication to treat IC/BPS is Pentosan polysulfate sodium (PPS). However, ocular pigmentary maculopathy has been described in some patients, with greater severity associated with prolonged PPS exposure.

Shared decision-making between clinicians and service users is crucial in mental health care. One significant barrier to achieving this goal is the lack of user-centered services. Integrating digital tools into mental health services holds promise for addressing some of these challenges. However, the implementation of digital tools, such as mobile apps, remains limited, and attrition rates for mental health apps are typically high. Design thinking can support the development of tools tailored to the needs of service users and clinicians.

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents in the United States are disproportionately affected by HIV. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a highly effective biomedical HIV prevention method, but its awareness and uptake among SGM adolescents are low. There are no adolescent-centered PrEP social marketing campaigns in the United States that have the potential to increase awareness and interest in PrEP.

About 53 million adults in the United States offer informal care to family and friends with disease or disability. Such care has an estimated economic value of $600 million. Most informal caregivers are not paid nor trained in caregiving, with many experiencing higher-than-average levels of stress and depression and lower levels of physical health. Some informal caregivers participate in online forums related to their caregiving role.

The integration of large language models, as seen with the Generative Pre-Trained Transformers (GPT) series, into healthcare education and clinical management represents a transformative potential. The practical utility of current LLMs in healthcare spark great anticipation for new avenues, yet its embracement also elicits considerable concerns that necessitate careful deliberation. This review aims to evaluate the application of state-of-the-art LLMs in healthcare education, for we highlight the following shortcomings as areas requiring significant and urgent improvements: a) threats to academic integrity, b) dissemination of misinformation and risks of automation bias, c) challenges with information completeness and consistency, d) inequity of access, e) risks of algorithmic bias, f) exhibition of moral instability, g) technological limitations in plugin tools, and h) lack of regulatory oversight in addressing legal and ethical challenges. Future research should focus on strategically addressing the persistent challenges of LLMs highlighted in this paper, opening the door for effective measures that can improve their application in healthcare education.

Individuals with co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and HIV are at high-risk for negative HIV-related outcomes, including low adherence to antiretroviral therapy, faster disease progression, more hospitalizations, and almost twice the rate of death. Despite high rates of PTSD in persons with HIV (PWH) and poor HIV-related health outcomes associated with PTSD, an effective evidence-based treatment for PTSD symptoms in PWH does not exist.

In recent years, public health has confronted 2 formidable challenges: the devastating COVID-19 pandemic and the enduring threat of climate change. The convergence of these crises underscores the urgent need for resilient solutions. Resilience informatics (RI), an emerging discipline at the intersection of informatics and public health, leverages real-time data integration from health systems, environmental monitoring, and technological tools to develop adaptive responses to multifaceted crises. It offers promising avenues for mitigating and adapting to these challenges by proactively identifying vulnerabilities and fostering adaptive capacity in public health systems. Addressing critical questions regarding target audiences, privacy concerns, and scalability is paramount to fostering resilience in the face of evolving health threats.

The use of mobile health (mHealth) interventions, such as applications (apps) are proposed to meet the challenges faced by preventive health care services due to the increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Thus, we developed and conducted initial feasibility testing of the Plunde app for promoting and monitoring individual goals related to lifestyle change for people at risk of T2D.

Dementia is a growing global health challenge with significant economic and social implications. Under-diagnosis of dementia is prevalent due to a lack of knowledge and understanding among the general population. Enhancing dementia literacy through improved health information seeking behavior is crucial for the self-determined management of the disease by those affected. Understanding the relationship between dementia literacy, health information seeking behavior, and the use of various information sources among individuals with cognitive impairment is of high importance in this context.

Health care systems and the nursing profession worldwide are being transformed by technology and digitalization. Nurses acquire digital competence through their own experience in daily practice, but also from education and training; nursing education providers thus play an important role. While nursing education providers have some level of digital competence, there is a need for ongoing training and support for them to develop more advanced skills and effectively integrate technology into their teaching.