JMIR Research Protocols

Health and health care systems are progressively challenged by more frequent natural and human-caused hazards. A hazard becomes a disaster when vulnerability and exposure interact in complex ways with system capacity to trigger major disruptions in the functioning of a community or society. Patients with kidney diseases, especially those on dialysis, are particularly vulnerable.

Menstrual restrictions remain widespread in Nepal, where approximately 90% of women and girls follow at least one restriction. One of the most harmful practices, chhaupadi (severe menstrual seclusion), requires women and girls to isolate in huts during menstruation and is associated with substantial physical and psychological risks, including injury, assault, smoke inhalation, and social exclusion. Although interventions have attempted to address chhaupadi, effectiveness has varied, and no comprehensive assessment has identified which components work, for whom, and under what conditions. Few prior efforts have meaningfully engaged communities in intervention design to ensure contextual relevance and sustainability.

Chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) imposes a significant psychological, physical, and emotional burden on millions of adults in the United States. A challenge in treating CMP is its tendency to become enmeshed with a person’s sense of self. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) offer a promising approach to help patients disentangle pain from their sense of self. However, rigorous research is needed to determine which styles of mindfulness practice most effectively promote self-transcendence, a candidate mechanism for durable pain relief.

Accreditation programs are used by hospitals and health services to be independently reviewed against established safety and quality standards and have been a feature of global health systems for over a century. While evidence that accreditation programs directly improve patient safety and quality outcomes exists, the findings of various researchers remain mixed. Inefficiencies and a culture of “gaming” the system have also been observed, raising questions about the overall effectiveness of accreditation programs and assessment processes. Consequently, exploration of other formats of accreditation assessment, such as short-notice accreditation assessment, has arisen. From July 1, 2023, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare mandated that Australian public and private hospitals must engage in short-notice accreditation assessment.

Research is needed to better understand mental health (MH) problems among higher education (HE) students and how to address them. The Observatory on Student Mental Health in Higher Education (OSMHHE) brings together 350 members across Quebec (Canada) and internationally. Its mission is to develop, promote, and disseminate knowledge to foster a culture that supports student MH in HE.

The COVID-19 pandemic has a lasting impact on health care utilization, as both the acute infection and post COVID condition (PCC) can lead to increased demand for medical services due to ongoing symptoms.

Cesarean section (CS) requires perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis (PAP) for the prevention of surgical site infections. However, systemic antibiotics during the peripartum period may induce compositional perturbations of the maternal gut microbiome, a system already characterized by reduced resilience. Data on maternal gut microbiome dynamics after CS with PAP are scarce, largely due to logistical and feasibility barriers that limit the participation of pregnant women and new mothers in conventional clinical studies.

Clinical decision support (CDS) tools that provide patient-specific and evidence-based information to clinicians and care managers regarding patient risk for adverse outcomes have been a part of health care for decades. However, modern CDS, which consists of automated predictions based on complex machine learning models and hundreds of complex input variables, faces obstacles to adoption related to health care providers’ perceptions of lack of transparency and utility. Often, the expertise of data scientists and clinical end users is not well integrated, creating implementation gaps from CDS development to adoption and ongoing implementation.

Despite the growing emphasis on open science and equity in research, qualitative data capturing diverse human experiences and perspectives are rarely reused beyond the original study. Increasingly, data repositories are used to make these data publicly available, but it is unclear whether these data can be effectively identified by researchers interested in secondary data analysis.

As a prevalent side effect, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) imposes a burden on the daily lives of patients with breast cancer. Multiple clinical trials have suggested the validity of acupuncture in alleviating CINV; however, the optimal acupuncture modality remains unclear.

Children and adolescents presenting to emergency departments (EDs) with mental and behavioral health (MBH) concerns frequently exhibit agitation, which poses safety risks for patients and staff and strains ED resources. Validated tools for agitation risk stratification in pediatric MBH populations are lacking, and evidence-based, risk-informed management strategies remain underdeveloped. Addressing these gaps is critical to reducing the need for emergent interventions, enhancing safety, and optimizing care delivery.

As of June 2025, medical assistance in dying (MAiD) is allowed in over 25 jurisdictions across 12 countries, with varying rates of requests and provision. Hypotheses have been suggested to explain these variations, but they are rarely backed up by empirical evidence. As more jurisdictions consider legalizing MAiD, it is important to better understand what factors may explain the evolution of the use of MAiD worldwide with a systematic approach.