IntroductionMusculoskeletal (MSK) conditions are a major cost driver for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. Digital health can improve access to preventive treatments like exercise therapy, but adoption has been challenging in older populations. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a novel, multidisciplinary virtual integrated practice unit (V-IPU) for MA members with MSK conditions.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed 308 […]
DFU-GCNet: a global context-enhanced inception network for robust and interpretable diabetic foot ulcer classification
IntroductionDiabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are severe complications that cause frequent lower extremity amputations. Timely diagnosis is crucial for effective clinical management. Although deep learning approaches improve detection, the models often struggle to capture different lesion scales. Furthermore, opaque algorithmic decisions often lower medical trust. Therefore, this study introduces DFU-GCNet for robust and interpretable ulcer classification.MethodsThe […]
Resources consumption and environmental impacts of the DYNAMIC digital health intervention aimed at improving quality of care for sick children in Tanzania: a life cycle assessment
BackgroundHealth systems contribute to an important part of planetary boundaries overshoot, the effect of its rapid digitalization being however not well known. DYNAMIC is a Tanzanian digital health project, aimed at improving quality of care for sick children at primary care level through the provision of a tablet-based clinical decision support algorithm for clinicians. We […]
The past, present and future use of technology-enabled physical activity interventions in clinical and non-clinical populations: a bibliometric trend analysis across four decades
BackgroundPhysical inactivity remains a persistent global health challenge despite long-standing evidence that regular physical activity (PA) reduces chronic disease risk, cognitive decline and premature mortality. In parallel, digital health technologies have expanded rapidly, yet it remains unclear how distinct platform types have emerged, diffused and been differentially adopted in clinical vs. non-clinical populations.MethodsWe conducted a […]
Bridging the data–power paradox: a conceptual–empirical analysis of solar-powered digital health systems in low-resource settings
BackgroundDigital health technologies are increasingly promoted as key enablers of health system strengthening in low-resource settings. However, their effectiveness is often constrained by inadequate infrastructure, particularly unreliable energy supply. This misalignment between digital innovation and infrastructural readiness can be conceptualized as the “Data–Power Paradox,” whereby investments in digital health systems are undermined by unreliable electricity […]
Blinded two-phase evaluation of large language models in complex cardiac surgery: task-specific performance and human-AI collaboration
BackgroundLarge language models (LLMs) have demonstrated strong performance on standardized medical benchmarks. However, their potential in complex surgical decision-making is largely uncharacterized. Critically, human–LLM collaboration regarding the extent to which clinicians can effectively recognize and integrate model-generated reasoning has emerged as an unaddressed question. To address these gaps, we developed a two-phase evaluation framework to […]
A qualitative, multi-framework methodology for analysing health information technology–related patient safety incidents
BackgroundThe increasing reliance on health information technology (HIT) has introduced new and often unforeseen risks to patient safety in complex healthcare systems. Many HIT-related safety problems emerge only after systems are embedded in routine clinical practice and are difficult to identify using prospective or purely quantitative methods. Incident reports provide valuable insights into real-world failures, […]
The Irish COPD paradox and the promise of virtual care
IntroductionIreland has the highest COPD hospitalisation rate in the OECD (315 per 100,000 vs. an average of 190), yet possesses the infrastructure and reform ambition—through Sláintecare—to deliver care differently. Virtual Care Pathways underpinned by Remote Patient Monitoring offer one route out of this costly, hospital-centric cycle, but the question is not simply whether they work. […]
Listening to MS: AI-assisted speech analysis for diagnosis and fatigue prediction (COMMITMENT)
BackgroundIdentification of fatigue in people with Multiple Sclerosis (pwMS) is still mainly based on subjective assessments due to the lack of objective diagnostic tools. We aimed to identify vocal biomarkers to differentiate between pwMS with and without fatigue.MethodsThis COMMITMENT trial was a prospective, observational study recruiting healthy controls (HCs, n = 20) and relapsing MS (RMS) patients […]
Beyond accuracy: evaluating the operational feasibility and diagnostic yield of CAD4TB vs. Timika score for scalable TB screening in low-resource settings
Artificial intelligence has shown promise in enhancing tuberculosis care, but its use in resource-limited settings like Indonesia remains underexplored. This cross-sectional retrospective single-centre study evaluates the diagnostic performance of CAD4TB in screening Indonesian patients suspected of tuberculosis using chest x-ray (CXR) images, comparing its efficacy to the Timika score assessed by experts. We analyzed CXR […]
Automated emotion recognition via video-based semantic embeddings
IntroductionAutomated emotion recognition systems often rely on acted datasets and categorical models that miss the nuance of spontaneous affect.MethodsThis work assembled a large corpus of authentic facial emotion expressions from naturalistic outpatient psychotherapy sessions, annotated with free-text descriptions by human labelers. These descriptions were embedded in a 768-dimensional semantic space using a fine-tuned German Sentence-BERT […]
Beyond the digital divide: multi-group SEM examination of socioeconomic status, mHealth utilization, and urban-rural physical activity disparities in Indonesia
BackgroundMobile health (mHealth) technological innovations are now widely being promoted as a scalable solution to the rising problem of obesity. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of empirical research on the extent to which mHealth utilization is associated with acceptance disparities in emerging economies.ObjectiveThis work explores the associations among socioeconomic status (SES), urban-rural differences, mHealth utilization, […]