JMIR Human Factors

Sleep is essential for overall health and well-being, but assessing sleep architecture is often costly and time-consuming, relying primarily on polysomnography (PSG). While wrist-worn wearables offer alternatives, they face limitations regarding user compliance, such as battery charging and physical discomfort. Nearable devices address these burdens, but they regularly lack rigorous validation, especially in real-world settings.

Over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids were introduced to improve the affordability and accessibility of hearing health care for adults with perceived mild-to-moderate hearing loss. While these devices have demonstrated effectiveness in cognitively healthy older adults—particularly in the domains of audibility, self-reported hearing ability, and speech recognition in quiet—their use and outcomes in people with dementia remain underexplored. This issue warrants further attention, as people with dementia often experience co-occurring hearing loss and may rely on OTC hearing aids to overcome cost and access barriers to prescription amplification. However, given the cognitive and functional challenges of dementia, it is unclear whether and how OTC hearing aids can support the hearing care needs of these individuals.

The rising prevalence of diabetes necessitates continuous monitoring and treatment, especially for type 2 diabetes. Patient education plays a crucial role in enabling self-management, and web-based educational portals can support patients effectively. While the literature highlights various issues impacting self-management system design, few studies explore the usability aspects that either facilitate or hinder such systems for this patient group.

Alarm fatigue caused by frequent or false alarms poses a persistent threat to patient safety. Despite technological progress, alarm acoustics remain largely unchanged and are often perceived as disruptive. To address this, Philips redesigned its patient monitoring alarm sounds through a user-centered approach aimed at improving priority differentiation and reducing emotional strain.

Data dashboards are popular tools for supporting routine monitoring and decision-making in public health. Two dashboards were developed in Côte d’Ivoire to visualize laboratory data on HIV viral load (VL) and early infant diagnosis (EID) testing.

Although telemedicine grew rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, instruments to assess general practitioners’ (GPs) attitudes and behavioral intentions to use it are scarce. In Sweden, the Physicians’ Attitudes and Intentions to use Telemedicine (PAIT) questionnaire was developed from the “theory of planned behavior” in 2019 and translated into English in 2022.

Living with asthma—especially in its severe forms—can significantly impact daily life, including social activities, work, travel, and household responsibilities. Collaboration between patients and health care professionals (HCPs) is frequently lacking, particularly regarding treatment goals. Self-management has been shown to mitigate the negative effects of asthma. Technical solutions might support self-management for patients with chronic diseases and their collaboration with HCPs.

Many veterans who served in the Gulf experience Gulf War Illness (GWI), a chronic multisymptom condition associated with fatigue, pain, gastrointestinal problems and respiratory issues, mood/cognitive issues, and sleep difficulties. These symptoms contribute to decreased function, increased mental health needs, and poor quality of life. The Veterans Affairs War Related Illness and Injury Study Center in New Jersey developed a 26-week virtual health coaching intervention to support symptom management for veterans with GWI. In 2023, a consumer-grade smartwatch was added as part of an activity monitoring program to complement this program.

Mental health has become a growing concern among university students. According to the Healthy Minds Study National Report 2022‐2023, 46% of students have been diagnosed with a mental health condition by a health professional, reflecting a nearly 50% increase from 2013 to 2021. While researchers have developed various technologies to help this issue, one significant aspect of the mental health management journey is often understudied—the role of mental health medication. Understanding how university students manage their medication for mental health symptoms in real-world practice has not been fully explored.

Digital self-monitoring applications could provide individuals with macular disease with a convenient, quantitative method for tracking metamorphopsia at home; yet the usability of such tools remains to be fully established.

Many patients attending hospital emergency services with recent-onset eye symptoms could have been managed in the community. This may reflect a lack of specialist experience or triage capacity among primary care providers. Online triage tools collect patient symptomatology and relevant ophthalmic and medical history virtually, compile a report, and suggest an outcome decision which can support the streaming and direction of patients to a suitable service within an appropriate timeframe.

Internet hospitals are playing a significant role in medical care with their potential to provide widely accessible outpatient service delivery via information technologies. Current research on patients’ satisfaction with internet hospitals mainly focus on physician-patient relationship and patient demand, and less is considered about the whole process of online consultation.