JMIR Formative Research

In resource-limited countries, most patients with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) use basal-bolus insulin therapy. Optimal dosing requires matching insulin to carbohydrate intake, premeal blood glucose levels, and physical activity—a complex process prone to error, particularly for patients with limited health literacy.

Sub-Saharan Africa faces challenges with collecting maternal and perinatal data because of poor documentation in paper-based systems and inadequate infrastructure for digital utilization. The electronic health record system-ULTRA (EHRS-ULTRA) was developed and piloted in the Kilimanjaro region from October 2022 to August 2024 to improve data management.

Miners are essential rural workers who may work in close proximity to others in inadequately ventilated environments and cannot telecommute or work flexible hours, rendering them vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Exposure to particulate air pollution may also be associated with an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and mortality. Chronic exposure to particulate matter causes overexpression of the alveolar angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor, facilitating SARS-CoV-2 entry into lung epithelial cells.

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Each year, family caregivers help the 2 million patients newly diagnosed with cancer manage their symptoms; however, few interventions have been developed and proven efficacious to enhance their symptom-support role. The recent expansion of electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePROs), including remote symptom monitoring, presents an opportunity to explore novel approaches to supporting caregiver symptom management by leveraging patient ePRO data.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common arrhythmias and is associated with multiple risk factors, including stroke and heart failure. Therefore, it is important that accurate and comprehensive educational resources on AF are available. Artificial intelligence (AI) platforms such as Google Gemini and ChatGPT are emerging tools for medical education. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the quality of these platforms for AF education.

Accessible health communication is essential for effective patient education, yet most medical information remains written at a level above the general population’s recommended reading level. Large language models (LLMs) can simplify complex medical information, but it remains unclear whether responses can be automatically adapted to match the linguistic complexity of user-generated questions seeking medical information.

In this 1-group pretest-posttest pilot of WISEBOx (Wise Intervention for Adolescents Who Purchase Loot Boxes) with adolescents who had previously purchased loot boxes (N=38), fewer participants reported purchasing loot boxes at the 1-month posttest than in the year before baseline. These findings support the feasibility of WISEBOx and the need for controlled efficacy testing.

Smartwatches can support mental health care by providing insights into activity and sleep, which are closely linked to mental health and daily functioning. However, their implementation in mental health care practice remains limited. Professionals can feel resistance toward digital mental health interventions if they feel their use is not aligned with therapeutic values, and report a need for guidance on how to use technologies in ways that do align with such values. Compassion, a core value in mental health care, may offer a meaningful frame for implementation. Therefore, we previously co-designed compassion-focused implementation materials: a card set offering practical suggestions of how smartwatch data can support group treatments in ways that counter the self-optimization logic of commercial devices and instead align with compassion.

Social desirability bias, the tendency to respond in ways that present the respondent favorably, is well documented in human self-report and has recently been observed in large language models (LLMs) completing personality inventories. Whether it also affects LLM responses to validated health screening instruments, where LLMs are increasingly proposed as simulated patients or synthetic respondents, has not been examined.

Adolescent mental health needs remain largely unmet, particularly among youth in geographically underserved communities. Digital peer support is a promising approach to expanding access to mental health support, yet real-world evidence on engagement patterns and clinical outcomes remains limited.

The use of generative AI in research and clinical practice is rapidly expanding, offering unprecedented capabilities in pattern extraction and data analysis. However, its application raises critical concerns regarding the accuracy and reliability of the information provided.