JMIR Formative Research

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted rapid changes in medical education, accelerating the adoption of online and distance learning methods as alternatives to traditional teaching. While these approaches offered logistical advantages, students worldwide reported significant limitations, particularly in terms of motivation, clinical exposure, and hands-on skill acquisition. Despite the increased use of digital teaching during the pandemic, core educational objectives and the mission of medical training remained unchanged, emphasizing the continued importance of practical experience.

Artificial intelligence–powered conversational agents (ie, chatbots) are increasingly popular outlets for users seeking psychological support, yet little is known about how users experience early-stage prototypes or which therapeutic processes contribute to clinical improvement. A transparent evaluation of emerging chatbot prototypes is needed to clarify if, how, and why artificial intelligence companions work and to guide their continued development.

Depression is highly prevalent yet undertreated among people living with heart failure, indicating barriers to mental health services. Although various digital mental health interventions have been developed to detect, treat, and manage depression in this population, these interventions have seen limited integration into clinical care and a lack of implementation research. Stepped care is a service innovation that may promote the implementation of these technologies into clinical settings, but few studies have examined how these services are designed in clinical settings.

The use of online physician rating platforms has significantly increased and has been shown to influence physician selection. There are limited data on the use of these platforms for rating surgeons.

Many people relapse after achieving abstinence in substance use disorders. Health care providers may scan the horizon for new technologies to predict response that allow interventions to be targeted rather than routine. Currently, no such predictive technologies are available in the United Kingdom. The Subreal app is available for use in research contexts, but no clinical data specific to the app are yet available. Early health economic modeling can use data from the literature to explore characteristics essential for the new technology to be cost-effective. This information can guide developers in setting performance targets and pricing and estimating potential cost savings and/or cost-effectiveness for health care providers.

Wellness tourism increasingly incorporates short yoga sessions for stress management, yet evidence on their immediate physiological and emotional responses remains limited.

Cyberaggression poses a growing threat to mental health, contributing to increased distress, reduced self-esteem, and other adverse psychosocial outcomes. Although bystander intervention can mitigate the escalation and impact of cyberaggression, individuals often lack the confidence, strategies, or language to respond effectively in these high-stakes online interactions. Advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) present a novel opportunity to facilitate digital behavior change by assisting bystanders with contextually appropriate, theory-informed intervention messages that promote safer online environments and support mental well-being.

Translation of medical consultation summaries is essential for equitable health care communication in culturally and linguistically diverse populations. While machine translation (MT) tools and large language models (LLMs) are widely accessible, their feasibility and safety for health care contexts remain underexplored.

Over 2.1 million adolescent and young adult cancer survivors (AYACS) live in the United States. Recent estimates suggest that up to one-third of AYACS experience major depressive disorder. Although several efficacious evidence-based interventions are available to manage symptoms of depression, these interventions are often inaccessible to AYACS who have many competing commitments. Digital mental health tools hold promise for this population; however, only a few have been tailored to meet the unique needs of AYACS, and findings to date have yielded mixed results.

Physical inactivity remains a public health concern, with 42% (around 1 in 2) of women and 34% (around 1 in 3) of men in the United Kingdom, for example, failing to meet moderate-to-vigorous physical activity guidelines. To promote physical activity (PA) at scale, smartphone-based mHealth (mobile health) software apps offer a promising solution.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) and basal insulin both lower blood sugar, but while insulin puts people at risk of hypoglycemia and weight gain, GLP-1 RAs do not. In addition, GLP-1 RAs have added cardiometabolic and renal benefits. For these reasons, when possible, many primary care providers prefer their patients with type 2 diabetes to be from basal insulin to a GLP-1 RA. This transition process can be labor intensive, requiring multiple dosing adjustments and a watchful eye for hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia. The Mobile Insulin Titration Intervention (MITI)–GLP1 program uses SMS text messaging–based technology to support a streamlined and supervised transition process from basal insulin to a GLP-1 RA. This program takes place at a multilingual safety-net clinic.

Youth should be partners in the development and dissemination of health information created for their demographic. The Manaora Rangatahi (youth) Guidelines comprise 10 eating and 10 wellbeing messages that were cocreated with rangatahi Māori (Māori youth) in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, and then disseminated through a digital media campaign.