JMIR Formative Research

The evolution of language models, particularly large language models, has introduced transformative potential for psychological assessment, challenging traditional rating scale methods that have dominated clinical practice for over a century.

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people experience a higher number of health disparities compared to cisgender counterparts. Social determinants of health are linked to these health disparities in minority communities, including in the TGD community. Lack of social support contributes significantly to these disparities for the TGD community.

Anxiety and depressive disorders are common and burdensome, yet many people prefer to self-manage and do not access treatment or fail to achieve meaningful improvement. Prior research indicates that the frequency of performing simple, everyday actions, namely “The Things You Do” (TYD; i.e., healthy thinking, meaningful activities, having goals and plans, healthy routines, and social connection) is strongly associated with support mental health and wellbeing. This research has been primarily quantitative in nature and so less is known about how people perceive and interpret changes in their mental health when engaging in or limiting these actions.

Many parents who use donor-assisted conception to form their families struggle with telling their children about how they came to be. To address this problem, we created the Tool to Empower Parental TeLling and TaLking or the TELL Tool, a digital, psychoeducational and decision-support intervention for parents with children aged 1 to 16 years. Recently, we completed a pilot randomized controlled trial of the TELL Tool that showed feasibility, acceptability, and promise. However, in its current version, the TELL Tool does not include content for pregnant, expecting, or new parents with children less than 1 year of age.

Uncontrolled diabetes contributes to serious comorbidities and mortality. Effective self-management can improve outcomes, though barriers such as limited education and support often prevent patients from engaging in such behaviors. Automated texting systems show promise to deliver diabetes self-management education as they are accessible and scalable. Furthermore, customizing these systems may further enhance patient engagement compared to standard, one-size-fits-all approaches. However, such customization is more resource-intensive, and it remains unclear whether the added effort meaningfully enhances diabetes self-management and outcomes.

Globally, we face a significant treatment gap in mental health care, with extensive wait times, exorbitant prices, and concerns about appropriateness for non-Western clients. Digital single-session interventions (SSIs) may offer a promising alternative. SSIs target particular mechanisms that underlie broad-ranging psychopathology, including deficits in problem-solving skills.

Mobile health (mHealth) apps can innovatively diagnose, prevent, and treat many diseases. The increasing use of mHealth apps necessitates an appropriate assessment standard.

Methadone is a first-line treatment for opioid use disorder, which is delivered in federally regulated opioid treatment programs (OTPs). Federal policies require directly observed dosing of methadone followed by graduated provision of nonobserved doses to take at home (ie, “take-home” dosing) after demonstrated stability is achieved. Policy changes since the COVID-19 pandemic have greatly expanded take-home dosing. Video directly observed treatment (video DOT) is an approach in which patients submit videos of themselves taking medications, which are asynchronously reviewed to verify adherence.

When given a sample of 100 emergency department discharge instructions, Claude Sonnet, a large language model, produced accurate Spanish translations as evaluated by Spanish-speaking physicians and medical interpreters.

Software solutions for wearable-based stress monitoring offer significant potential in healthcare, particularly for vulnerable populations such as individuals with dementia or persistent physical symptoms. Despite technological advances, designing user-centered, ethically grounded, and contextually relevant software remains challenging. Vulnerable populations often have specific cognitive, physical, and emotional needs that require customization, yet these are rarely prioritized in mainstream development. Our so-called Sensors2Care project addressed these challenges by co-developing stress-monitoring prototypes in collaboration with stakeholders from healthcare, law, and technology within a transdisciplinary setting.

Cardiac arrest (CA), characterized by an extremely high mortality rate, remains one of the most pressing global public health challenges. It not only causes a substantial strain on health care systems but also severely impacts individual health outcomes. Clinical evidence demonstrates that early identification of CA significantly reduced the mortality rate. However, the developed CA prediction models exhibit limitations such as low sensitivity and high false alarm rates. Moreover, issues with model generalization remain insufficiently addressed.

Access to care that affirms their entire self is essential, especially for gender-diverse individuals. Gender-affirming care includes medical, social, and non-medical supports to affirm gender identity.