JMIR Formative Research

The addition of simulated patients to medical and nursing training makes it possible to create a link between theory and practice. This makes what has been learned more realistic and allows the complexity and multilayered nature of many illnesses to be reflected in a real-life setting. However, the selection, training, and supervision of actors as simulated patients is time consuming and expensive. In this study, we investigated how differently students and nurses perceive 2 different methods of patient simulation.

The United States faces significant challenges in physical therapy (PT) access due to high demand, a shortage of professionals, and patient-related obstacles, which can adversely affect recovery and function. Limited access to PT may lead to increased dependence on medications for pain management, highlighting the need for non-pharmacologic options to reduce opioid over-prescribing. Low back pain, a leading cause of disability and high medical costs, is a common reason for requiring PT following surgery. Studies have shown that virtual reality (VR) guided movements can improve motor function and reduce pain intensity.

Understanding relationships among inhibitory control, attentional bias to food cues, and food consumption in nonclinical adolescent samples can inform preventive efforts for disordered eating and associated health risks.

Patients with multimorbidity have complex healthcare needs and are high-risk for adverse health outcomes. Primary care teams need tools to effectively and proactively plan care for these patients. We developed VET-PATHS (VETeran PAnel management Tool for High-risk Subgroups), a novel care planning informatics tool for complex primary care patients. VET-PATHS a) groups patients by chronic condition via latent class analysis of electronic health record (EHR) data, then b) jumpstarts care planning by suggesting ‘care steps’ based on data-driven high-priority care for the group.

Background: Hematuria is one of the most common urologic diseases seen within clinical practice with a prevalence range of 1.7-31.1%. In 2020, new American Urological Association (AUA) guidelines were revised which recommended that following initial evaluation, clinicians should categorize patients into three tiers (low risk, intermediate risk and high risk) based on various factors. Recent literature has shown the AUA guidelines to have high clinical utility when compared to other international guidelines such as the Hematuria Risk Index, Canadian Urological Association and Kaiser Permanente; however, this guideline remains unvalidated amongst the population of “well adults” within the United States.

Large Language Models (LLMs) have rapidly advanced across numerous fields, including mental health care. A shortage of trained therapists and mental health care providers has driven informal use of LLMs for therapeutic support. However, their clinical utility remains poorly defined. This study aimed to systematically evaluate the capabilities and limitations of LLMs in single-turn therapeutic interactions compared to psychotherapists-in-training.

The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) has been widely used to evaluate students in medical education. However, it is resource-intensive, presenting challenges in implementation. We hypothesized that generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT-4 could serve as a complementary assessor and alleviate the burden of physicians in evaluating OSCE.

The ecological momentary intervention (EMI) is one of the most promising digital—primarily mobile—interventions to enhance physical activity (PA) and other health behaviors. It is a combination of ecological momentary assessment (EMA), in which participants are prompted to indicate their momentary states and ongoing behaviors in daily life, and the just-in-time delivery of interventions tailored to the EMA responses. The EMI has typically been implemented in message-based interventions (e.g., activity recommendations tailored to users’ physical locations), but its efficacy and feasibility have not been sufficiently established because of the variability in design and implementation.

Video games are becoming increasingly accessible and occupy a prominent position among students’ leisure activities. Recent studies have demonstrated that engagement with video games can facilitate the development of specific abilities, such as visuospatial skills and hand-eye coordination. Thus, it seemed relevant to investigate whether the practice of playing video games could enhance the technical capabilities of novice dental students.

Internet health care plays a crucial role in addressing the challenge of distributing high-quality medical resources and promoting the optimal allocation of these resources and health equity in China. Online medical consultation (OMC) plays a more significant role than online health information seeking (OHIS). Currently, the proportion of Chinese patients using OMC is low. Therefore, it is essential to enhance patient engagement with OMC and fully leverage the role of internet health care in optimizing the allocation of medical resources.

Migraines are a significant health concern affecting millions of individuals, often requiring habitual tracking of potential triggers to mitigate or predict episodes. Digital health tools such as mobile apps offer a scalable solution for personalized tracking and pattern recognition. Migraine Insight is one such app that facilitates daily logging to quantitatively assess individualized patterns of events preceding migraine onset. However, while various triggers have been reported in migraine literature, there is limited large-scale electronic user-driven data on the frequency and relative impact of specific triggers.

Gender minority populations experience an increased risk of depression relative to their cisgender counterparts and report significant barriers to accessing mental health services. While digital mental health (DMH) technologies may address barriers, it remains unclear how gender minority clients engage with DMH services and if DMH improves their clinical outcomes.