JMIR Research Protocols

Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is one of the most common pelvic floor disorders in women and is frequently treated surgically using midurethral sling procedures. Despite the high success rates of these procedures, postoperative voiding dysfunction remains a clinically relevant complication that may negatively affect patient satisfaction and quality of life. The underlying mechanisms are multifactorial and not completely understood. In particular, the interaction among sling position, urethral mobility, and pelvic floor dynamics during increases in intra-abdominal pressure may influence postoperative urinary function. Dynamic transperineal ultrasound has emerged as a valuable imaging modality for evaluating sling position and urethral mobility; however, the relationship between dynamic sonographic sling parameters and postoperative urinary symptoms has not yet been sufficiently clarified.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is associated with a substantial individual and societal burden. Cue exposure approaches can support treatment by targeting conditioned cue reactivity and high-risk contextual associations. However, routine implementation is limited by therapist time, scalability constraints, and the difficulty of reproducing ecologically valid drinking situations in standard care settings. Virtual reality (VR) and AI have been proposed as promising tools to support scalable and contextually rich interventions in mental health care.

Rapid urbanization in India is straining the government’s capacity to provide basic amenities such as housing, sanitation, electricity, and water. One group of people who are deeply affected are adolescent girls who menstruate. In urban slums, referred to as bastis in Telugu and Hindi, this reality is worsened by spatial congestion and limited water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) resources. This study is situated in the populous slum colonies of Film Nagar, Hyderabad, where residents navigate precarious living conditions and a scarcity of basic amenities.

Insomnia is a prevalent sleep disorder associated with adverse physical, psychological, and functional outcomes. Emerging evidence suggests that vitamin D deficiency may contribute to sleep disturbances. Women are more likely to have lower serum vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D]) levels than men, and they also report a higher prevalence of insomnia. Although several studies have proposed that vitamin D supplementation may improve insomnia symptoms, findings remain inconsistent, and evidence from Southeast Asian populations is limited.

Obesity affects approximately 880 million adults worldwide and carries substantial health, economic, and social consequences. Although bariatric surgery achieves sustained weight loss and metabolic improvement, existing systematic reviews largely predate 2020 and rarely integrate clinical, economic, and system-level perspectives within a single synthesis.

Mental health care professionals working in high-demand clinical environments are frequently exposed to patient suffering and trauma, placing them at increased risk for burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Compassion-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (CF-CBT) has shown promise in reducing psychological distress and enhancing self-compassion; however, traditional delivery methods may be limited by time, accessibility, and resource constraints. Virtual reality (VR) may provide an immersive and accessible approach for delivering compassion-focused interventions.

In-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) remains a frequent and devastating event, and conventional early warning scores (EWSs) coupled with rapid response systems (RRSs) have shown inconsistent effects on patient-centered outcomes, largely owing to limited predictive accuracy and high false-alarm burden. AI-based EWSs (AI-EWSs) have demonstrated superior discrimination retrospectively, but high-quality prospective evidence in true external validation environments remains scarce. Existing AI-EWS trials have either been confined to internal-development settings or bundled the algorithm with specific implementation infrastructure, leaving the stand-alone effect of AI-based software as a medical device (AI-SaMD) on patient outcomes uncharacterized.

Mental health disorders are a leading cause of disability among adolescents and young people in Kenya, yet access to appropriate and timely support remains severely limited due to shortages of trained professionals, stigma, financial barriers, and geographical inequities. Digital mental health interventions, particularly those leveraging AI, present a promising opportunity to expand access to culturally relevant, low-stigma mental wellness support in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) settings. However, evidence on the feasibility, usability, and acceptability of AI-powered mental health tools for young people in sub-Saharan Africa remains limited.

The early life course, that is, from preconception up until the first 1000 days of life, is pivotal for optimizing parental and child health. In deprived settings, unfavorable lifestyle behaviors and poor mental health are more prevalent, while access to effective, context-sensitive support is limited. Digital interventions combined with community-based approaches may help address these disparities.

Nearly 83 million Americans experience mental illness, but fewer than 50% accessed past-year mental health services. Disseminable, potent mental health interventions are critically needed. Standalone digital interventions offer promise for improving clinical outcomes, but the efficacy of these interventions to date is modest, likely due in part to insufficient personalization to patient heterogeneity, varying context, and the stochastic nature of mental health symptoms.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of lower respiratory tract disease in infants, with the highest burden in the first 6 months of life. Maternal immunization with the bivalent (RSV-A and RSV-B) prefusion F (RSVPreF) protein subunit vaccine (ABRYSVO) is a recently recommended strategy for preventing RSV-related outcomes in infants. First licensed for use in pregnancy in 2023, the RSVPreF vaccine demonstrated efficacy in a single pivotal randomized trial (Maternal Immunization Study for Safety and Efficacy; MATISSE); postlicensure real-world evidence on vaccine effectiveness across settings, seasons, and subgroups and on antibody durability and transplacental transfer remains limited and has not been synthesized in a continuously updated framework, motivating this review.

Prediabetes represents a critical intervention window to reduce progression to type 2 diabetes. The current standard of care for treatment of prediabetes is weight loss and lifestyle modification, which are both highly effective, although limited by real-world adherence. It is well recognized that continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) improves glycemic and behavioral outcomes in people with diabetes, although outcomes among people with prediabetes are not well described.