JMIR Formative Research

The rising burden of disease associated with mental disorders calls for evidence-based psychological interventions that can be swiftly scaled up. Blending smartphone-based mental health apps (MHapps) for delivering ecological momentary interventions (EMIs) with traditional in-person interventions may have the benefits of improving treatment adherence, the application of learned techniques into everyday life and, in turn, enhancing clinical response. However, previous work has shown that most existing MHapps were developed for specific research studies or for profit, thereby making them difficult to adapt, particularly in time-limited and resource-scarce settings.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has shown great potential in various fields, including healthcare. However, its application in developing patient education materials(PEMs), particularly those with coronary heart disease (CHD), remains underexplored. Traditional methods for creating these materials are time-consuming and lack personalization, which limits their effectiveness.

Older people are particularly vulnerable to loneliness and social isolation due to common age-related changes. The ability to maintain social relationships is considered important for health and well-being and is an essential aspect of healthy aging. The use of information and communication technology has been shown to promote social connectedness and social support among older people; however, many existing solutions require already established contacts and are not developed based on expressed needs among older people experiencing loneliness or social isolation.

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical education is evolving, offering new tools to enhance teaching and assessment. Among these, script concordance tests (SCT) are well suited to evaluate clinical reasoning in contexts of uncertainty. Traditionally, SCTs require expert panels for scoring and feedback, which can be resource intensive. Recent advances in generative AI, particularly large language models (LLM), suggest the possibility of replacing human experts with simulated ones, though this potential remains underexplored.

Key information pages for informed consent require a concise summary of information to improve participant understanding but have not widely incorporated health literacy best practices.

There is a need to increase healthcare professional training capacity to meet global needs by 2030. Effective communication is essential for delivering safe and effective patient care. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies may provide a solution. However, evidence for high-fidelity virtual patient simulators using unrestricted two-way verbal conversation for communication skills training is lacking.

The accurate extraction of biomedical entities in scientific articles is essential for effective metadata annotation of the research datasets, ensuring data findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability in collaborative research.

Mental health disorders pose a significant challenge in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), contributing substantially to the global disease burden. Despite the high prevalence of these disorders, LMICs allocate less than 1% of health budgets to mental health, resulting in inadequate care and a severe shortage of professionals. Stigma and cultural misconceptions further hinder access to mental health services. These challenges are present in Bangladesh, with high prevalence rates of depression and anxiety, a centralized and under-resourced mental health care system. Digital tools, such as smartphone applications and online platforms, offer innovative solutions to these challenges by increasing accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and scalability of mental health interventions.

Although treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) often yields high adherence during pregnancy, the risk of returning to opioid misuse during postpartum is high. There are currently no relapse prevention programs tailored to this unique time period. Using a prospective cohort study, we seek to preliminarily identify hormones and/or infant caregiving approaches as novel predictors of postpartum opioid misuse.

Accurate assessment of physical activity (PA) in large population-based cohorts remains a major methodological challenge. Self-reported questionnaires, although commonly used due to low cost and simplicity, are prone to recall and social desirability biases, causing misclassification and weakened associations with health outcomes. Body-worn accelerometers provide more objective and reliable measurements, but their acceptability and feasibility in large-scale epidemiological studies must be carefully evaluated to ensure compliance, data quality, and scalability.

Digital health technologies are increasingly used as complementary and/or alternative means of seeking sexual and reproductive health services. These platforms now play a critical role in facilitating services such as contraception counseling, abortion care, STI testing and treatment, and fertility-related support, particularly for individuals who face barriers to in-person care. Despite their increasing prevalence, there is an emerging concern that such platforms could inadvertently trigger or perpetuate trauma among end-user patients. This risk is particularly salient for individuals from equity-deserving populations who already navigate stigma, discrimination, or prior traumatic experiences in healthcare settings

Immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) are used in pediatric interventional cardiology (IC) to improve anatomical visualization, spatial understanding and support procedural precision. These technologies offer three-dimensional (3D) representations of complex cardiac structures, which can aid in pre-procedural planning, intraoperative navigation, and team communication. As these technologies gain traction in IC, understanding how medical specialists perceive their value is vital.