BackgroundDigital solutions may increase sustainability in healthcare for patients undergoing total hip or knee arthroplasty (THA, TKA). Little information exists on these patients’ digital health literacy levels.ObjectiveDescribe digital health literacy in patients following THA or TKA and examine the associations between sociodemographic factors and digital health literacy levels.MethodsIn a cross-sectional survey, a total of 800 […]
Planning and delivering co-creation workshops: practical lessons from digital health device design
Co-creation methods are increasingly recognised as essential in digital health and care, yet engineers and physical scientists new to the field often find the literature highly theoretical, fragmented, and difficult to apply in practice. This paper presents a worked example of planning and delivering co-creation workshops through the development of an overactive bladder treatment device. […]
Promises and challenges of applying large language models in the healthcare domain
Large language models are rapidly moving from theoretical concepts to active clinical pilots. Current approaches diverge between general-purpose models, which adapt to healthcare via prompt engineering, and domain-specific models, which prioritize deep alignment with medical knowledge graphs to ensure safety. Despite reported benefits in documentation efficiency and diagnostic reasoning, significant challenges remain regarding hallucination, privacy, […]
Intelligence without intuition: a mixed-methods pilot study on reasoning models in musculoskeletal physiotherapy for low-back pain
Musculoskeletal pain, especially low-back pain, is highly prevalent and often challenging to manage due to its multifactorial nature. Effective diagnosis and therapy require clinicians to integrate biopsychosocial information within an evidence-based clinical reasoning framework. Large language models that “think” before responding, so-called reasoning models, show promise to support such complex decision-making, yet their validity and […]
Artificial intelligence in rehabilitation: a review of clinical effectiveness, real-world performance, safety, and equity across modalities and settings
BackgroundRehabilitation faces a scale problem: millions who could benefit lack timely, effective services. Artificial intelligence (AI) and device-based modalities (e.g., robotics and VR) can extend reach and personalise care when validated, yet decision-makers lack a consolidated view of clinical usefulness, translation to practice, safety, equity, and cost.MethodsWe conducted an umbrella review of reviews using a […]
Can ChatGPT-5 educate the public about vasectomy?: a Google Trends–based expert panel assessment
BackgroundChatGPT-5, the latest multimodal large language model (LLM), has gained remarkable public attention for its ability to provide real-time and context-aware health information. However, its effectiveness in addressing sensitive urological topics such as vasectomy has not been systematically evaluated.ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the accuracy, completeness and public suitability of ChatGPT-5’s responses to frequently asked […]
Ontology- and LLM-based data harmonization for federated learning in healthcare
IntroductionSemantic heterogeneity across electronic health records (EHRs) limits scalable and privacy-preserving analytics in healthcare. While federated learning (FL) enables collaborative modeling without sharing raw data, it requires consistent, ontology-aligned representations. We present an ontology- and large language model (LLM)-based data harmonization approach to support secure, interoperable FL workflows.MethodsWe propose a general two-step pipeline for converting […]
Shaping the future of multiple myeloma with artificial intelligence and digital twins: from concept to clinic
Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable hematological malignancy with significant clinical and biological heterogeneity. Despite development and refinement of numerous prognostic models for MM, challenges with accurate and reliable risk stratification remain, highlighted by unexpected, early relapse or progression of disease in patients termed functional high-risk (FHR). To improve decision-making and optimise outcome, there is […]
A pre-treatment comparison of referral pathways to guided ICBT for depression and anxiety disorders – A naturalistic study in routine clinical care
IntroductionSelf-referral to therapist-guided internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (guided ICBT) is increasingly being implemented in specialized mental healthcare settings to reduce barriers to care. Little is known about the characteristics of patients who access treatment through this pathway compared to the traditional referral pathway from general practitioner (GP). This study aims to compare demographic characteristics, socioeconomic […]
Extraction and processing of intensive care chart data from a patient data management system
BackgroundRoutine clinical data captured in Patient Data Management Systems (PDMS) in intensive care and perioperative settings are an invaluable resource for clinical research. However, the proprietary, fragmented, and transaction-oriented architecture of many systems severely limits secondary data use and requires extensive Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) processing.MethodsWe developed a modular, Python-based ETL framework that enables […]
From bedside to bytes: the digital transformation of the healthcare workforce
Digital transformation is reshaping healthcare work, whereas research on workforce implications remains fragmented across disciplines. Effects like burnout, resistance, and workflow disruption are often framed as implementation failures rather than systematic outcomes of how work is reorganized. This Mini Review advances a four-dimensional analytical lens distinguishing work execution (task distribution, sequencing, temporal organization), work experience […]
Chatbots as frontline educators in sexual reproductive health rights: evidence, limitations, and ethical considerations
Chatbots are increasingly used in digital health to expand access to information and support user engagement. In sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), where stigma, privacy concerns, and health system constraints often limit timely access to accurate information, chatbots have been proposed as scalable tools for delivering education and facilitating service navigation. This perspective […]