JMIR Formative Research

A multilayered fraud-mitigation approach is essential to ensure data integrity in medical survey research; basic measures alone (eg, CAPTCHA) would permit widespread fraud.

National digital health systems are increasingly recognized as a key tool for strengthening health care systems and improving patient outcomes. Global guidance from the World Health Organization and European Union initiatives emphasizes interoperability, robust data governance, and secure exchange of health information as prerequisites for system-wide benefits. However, translating these principles into operational national digital health infrastructures remains challenging, and empirical evidence on long-term, centralized implementation models is limited. Lithuania is among a small number of European countries that have implemented a fully centralized national digital health platform (DHP), providing a valuable case for examining the development, structure, and performance of such systems.

In the United States and worldwide, chronic pain affects a vast number of people and is one of the leading reasons adults seek medical care. In the United States, 24.3% of adults reported experiencing chronic pain in the prior 3 months in 2023. Chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts ≥3 months, significantly disrupting one’s daily functioning and quality of life. Chronic pain can also be accompanied by other conditions, including anxiety and depression. Health care providers should be aware of several limitations in their current treatment modalities. Although opioid analgesics are used for moderate to severe pain management, they cause many serious adverse effects, including sedation, respiratory depression, constipation, and a high risk of dependence and addiction. Other pain medications, such as nonopioid analgesics, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, adjuvant analgesics, and corticosteroids, also cause a range of side effects and organ toxicity.

AI is increasingly integrated into medical education, offering new ways for students to acquire knowledge and support clinical reasoning. However, the extent, patterns, and implications of AI use among medical students remain incompletely understood. Prior studies have relied on retrospective surveys that are susceptible to recall bias and have not quantified AI use as a proportion of total study time.

Health care professional–generated vignettes are commonly used to illustrate and analyze patient experiences, shaped through clinical reflection to support provider understanding, training, and practice improvement. However, the subjective interpretation of narratives and the time-consuming manual process limit this approach. As an alternative, patients could record video blogs (vlogs) of their experiences, which can then be transformed into vignettes using GenAI and carefully designed prompts.

Popular discourse often frames prescription stimulants Ritalin and Adderall as drugs for teens and emerging adults with greater financial resources (eg, students or young professionals), while illicit stimulants such as crack or methamphetamine are often considered drugs for older adults with lower incomes. Crack and methamphetamine are also frequently used in combination with opioids to offset the sedating effects of adulterants such as fentanyl and xylazine in the unregulated drug supply. This combination of stimulant and opioid use creates additional overdose risks and may require new public health approaches. Our team posited that creating effective messages to protect against overdose in the context of stimulant use entailed first developing a better understanding of which stimulants people are using in combination with opioids.

Respiratory inductance plethysmography (RIP) belts are the standard for measuring thoracoabdominal movements in home sleep apnea testing (HSAT), but are often cumbersome and power-intensive.

Large language models (LLMs) have shown promising performance on medical examinations across specialties. However, comparative evaluations of current-generation LLMs across multiple European anesthesiology examinations, alongside structured assessment of hallucinations vs question-related confusion, remain lacking.

Modifiable health risks in pregnancy are common and contribute to adverse maternal and infant outcomes, yet preventive care addressing these risks can be difficult to deliver within time-limited antenatal appointments. Hybrid models combining in-person care with digital platforms offer a promising solution; however, there is limited evidence regarding consumer and health care professional perspectives on the preferred content and functionality of such platforms to inform their design.

Systematic literature reviews (SLRs) are essential for evidence synthesis in health research but remain labor-intensive, especially at the screening stage. Manual review of titles and abstracts requires substantial human effort, while existing automation tools still have limited adoption in health technology assessment. The EQ-5D questionnaire, a widely used patient-reported outcome measure for health-related quality of life, provides data that frequently underpin reimbursement and policy decisions.

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Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are among the most challenging aspects of dementia care and contribute substantially to care partner burden. Family care partners, who provide most community-based dementia care, often lack access to evidence-based, nonpharmacological interventions for managing BPSD, particularly in underserved communities. Mobile health (mHealth) apps offer a promising avenue to expand care partners’ access to caregiving support. However, existing dementia caregiving apps frequently provide generalized information rather than personalized guidance based on care partners’ priorities.