Recent Articles


The Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 initiated a global focus on universal health, supported by WHO through healthy cities policies. The concept emerged at the 1984 Toronto “Beyond Health Care” conference, leading to WHO’s first pilot project in Lisbon in 1986. The WHO continues to support regional healthy city networks, emphasizing digital transformation and data-driven health management in the digital era.

There is evidence that cognitive training interventions can positively impact executive functions, and that some studies have demonstrated that athletes typically exhibit greater accuracy and faster response times on select cognitive tasks. While the engagement of executive functions is suggested to be part of high-level sporting activities, it is unclear whether such training approaches could directly benefit athletic performance.

Coproduction with users of new digital technology, such as passive mood monitoring, is likely to improve its utility, safety, and successful implementation via improved design and consideration of how such technology fits with their daily lives. Mood-monitoring interventions are commonly used by people with bipolar disorder (BD) and have promising potential for digitization using novel technological methods.

Women of childbearing age (aged 18-44 years) face multiple barriers to receiving screening and treatment for unhealthy alcohol and substance use, depression, and anxiety, including lack of screening in the primary care setting and lack of support in accessing care. The Women Empowered to Connect with Addiction Resources and Engage in Evidence-based Treatment (WE-CARE) mobile app was developed to test universal screening with women of childbearing age and linkage to care after an anonymous assessment.

At least half of smokers make a serious quit attempt each year, but Black adults who smoke are less likely than White adults who smoke to quit smoking successfully. Black adults who smoke and have high anxiety sensitivity (an individual difference factor implicated in smoking relapse and culturally relevant to Black adults) are even less successful. The Mobile Anxiety Sensitivity Program for Smoking (MASP) is a smoking cessation smartphone app culturally tailored to Black adults who smoke to increase smoking cessation rates by targeting anxiety sensitivity.

Digital health technologies (DHTs) have been recognized as a key solution to help countries, especially those in the low- and middle-income group, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Triple Billion Targets. In hospital settings, DHTs need to be designed and implemented, considering the local context, to achieve usability and sustainability. As projects such as the Vietnam ICU Translational Applications Laboratory are seeking to integrate new digital technologies in the Vietnamese critical care settings, it is important to understand the current status of DHT adoption in Vietnamese hospitals.

Korea is rapidly transforming into a super-aged society; research indicates that digital literacy among older adults enhances their life satisfaction. Digital literacy refers to the ability to efficiently use digital technologies, encompassing access, competency, and utilization. It reflects the capacity to navigate and benefit from digital environments effectively. Furthermore, social capital positively influences the quality of life, and digital literacy facilitates social capital formation. However, since most studies have only focused on the direct relationship between digital literacy and life satisfaction, research on the mediating role of social capital remains limited.

Precision medicine promises to revolutionize healthcare by providing the right care to the right patient at the right time. However, the emergency department's unique mandate to treat "anyone, anywhere, anytime" creates critical tensions with precision medicine's requirements for comprehensive patient data and computational analysis. As emergency departments serve as healthcare's safety net and provide a growing proportion of acute care in America, identifying and addressing the ethical challenges of implementing precision medicine in this setting is crucial to prevent exacerbation of existing healthcare disparities. The rapid advancement of precision medicine technologies makes it imperative to understand these challenges before widespread implementation in emergency care settings.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly strained health care systems globally, leading to an overwhelming influx of patients and exacerbating resource limitations. Concurrently, an “infodemic” of misinformation, particularly prevalent in women’s health, has emerged. This challenge has been pivotal for health care providers, especially gynecologists and obstetricians, in managing pregnant women’s health. The pandemic heightened risks for pregnant women from COVID-19, necessitating balanced advice from specialists on vaccine safety versus known risks. In addition, the advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI), such as large language models (LLMs), offers promising support in health care. However, they necessitate rigorous testing.


Low back pain (LBP) is a highly prevalent problem causing substantial personal and societal burden. Though there are specific types of LBP, each with evidence-based treatment recommendations, most patients receive a nonspecific diagnosis which does not facilitate evidence-based and individualized care.
Preprints Open for Peer-Review
Open Peer Review Period:
-
Open Peer Review Period:
-
Open Peer Review Period:
-
Open Peer Review Period:
-