JMIR Research Protocols

Culturally responsive nursing involves delivering care that respects and reflects patients’ cultural values, communication patterns, and belief systems. In the Indian context, increasing rural-to-urban migration along with the expansion of medical tourism, estimated to have attracted 2.1 million international patients in 2024, has intensified the need for culturally competent nursing care. Although educational interventions in this area have shown encouraging results, there remains a lack of well-designed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in India. For the purpose of this study, structured training is understood as a planned, session-based approach to learning that includes activities such as simulation exercises, case-based discussions, and guided reflection.

Young people with HIV experience disproportionately poor outcomes across the HIV care continuum, high levels of stigma, and elevated alcohol and other substance use. Healthy Choices is a 4-session intervention that integrates motivational interviewing with brief cognitive-behavioral strategies and has demonstrated a positive impact on HIV stigma, alcohol use, depression, and viral load in prior trials among young people with HIV. Interventions such as Healthy Choices have the potential to improve the HIV care continuum in Caribbean settings. However, no interventions have been adapted in Spanish and pilot-tested to concurrently address stigma, mental health, alcohol use, and viral burden among young people with HIV in the Dominican Republic.

Leprosy is a chronic, granulomatous, and infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. The diagnosis of the disease is primarily clinical based on the observation of the characteristic signs and symptoms. Laboratory tests such as bacilloscopy and skin biopsy can also be used to aid in diagnosis. Due to the lack of complementary tests with 100% sensitivity, diagnosis is often made based on the combination of clinical, laboratory, and molecular criteria. Although M leprae has a tropism for nerves, no validated minimally invasive procedure exists to sample nerves for this disease. The investigation of the genetic material of the etiological agents that cause leprosy through perineural collection guided by ultrasound is a promising method for improving diagnostic accuracy.

Continuing medical education (CME) is a legal and ethical obligation for physicians in Germany. The rapid rise of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok raises concerns about the integrity of CME assessments, as LLMs can already pass German CME tests.

Pharmacotherapy for common mental disorders is frequently limited by adverse events and suboptimal adherence. While music therapy offers a promising nonpharmacological alternative, its clinical utility is currently constrained by limited accessibility, inconsistent efficacy, and a lack of mechanistic clarity.

Substance use disorder (SUD) represents a significant public health concern in the United States. SUD recovery is complex and individualized, and support provided by peer recovery coaches (PRCs) can improve outcomes. The PRC-client relationship requires bidirectional mediated communication that is often informal but should be trackable, efficient, and aligned with health care privacy and security regulations. Current workflows and available apps do not meet these needs, illustrating the opportunity for client-centered technology tools. We have developed Peer PLUS (People Leveraging Urgent Support; Parkview Health System, Inc), a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)-compliant mobile app and client management system, to address this need; however, the platform has not yet been tested in a clinical setting.

Comorbid anxiety and depression in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) are common, conferring a greater risk of poorer outcomes and increased health care costs. Few MS services include scalable treatment pathways for psychological distress.

Women with breast cancer face many barriers to returning to work (RTW) after their treatment. The Facilitating and Sustaining the Return to Work After Breast Cancer (FASTRACS) intervention aims to facilitate and sustain functional RTW.

Simulation-based training has demonstrated effectiveness in enhancing proficiency in interventional procedures. The endovascular treatment of peripheral arterial lesions has become a prominent minimally invasive therapeutic option. However, operators from various specialties, including Interventional Cardiology, Interventional Radiology, and Vascular Surgery, often follow diverging guideline recommendations and training pathways. Despite growing use of simulation in this field, the influence of an operator’s specialty on learning outcomes remains poorly understood.

High-quality neonatal resuscitation (NR) depends on timely execution of technical and nontechnical skills. Simulation-based training improves NR performance, but it is resource-intensive and difficult to deliver at sufficient frequency. Immersive virtual reality (VR) simulation may provide a scalable supplement to traditional mannequin-based training; however, evidence from European neonatal training settings is limited.

Heart failure (HF) is a major public health problem associated with frequent hospitalizations, high mortality, and substantial health care costs. Self-care is fundamental to improving health outcomes; yet, self-care is commonly poor among patients with HF. SMS text messaging interventions may provide a simple, scalable, and accessible strategy to support HF self-care, particularly among older adults who may face barriers to using more complex digital health technologies. However, the efficacy of text messaging as a standalone intervention for patients with HF remains underexplored.

With shorter window periods than serologic point-of-care (POC) tests and faster turnaround than laboratory-based nucleic acid tests (NAT), POC NATs could improve early detection of HIV. Furthermore, semiquantitative POC NAT may provide real-time monitoring for persons with HIV. There have been limited evaluations of POC NAT implementation in the United States.