JMIR Publications released five feature News and Perspectives articles on the state of digital scholarship and clinical practice.
Inside the Paper Mill Boom (And the Charge Against It)
For his latest article, " Authorship-for-Sale: From Fake Papers to Forensic Scientometrics ", JMIR Correspondent Cliff Dominy speaks with research integrity expert Leslie McIntosh and meta-scientist Reese Richardson on the AI-accelerated current state of academic fraud—why researchers buy their way onto papers they didn't write, and how the scientific community can respond. Tools like bibliometric analysis and identity verification may be able to catch fraudulent papers and/or authorship, writes Dominy, but "alongside these efforts, systemic reform might also be necessary," to address the publish-or-perish pressures underlying academic fraud.
Please cite as:
Dominy C. Authorship-for-Sale: From Fake Papers to Forensic Scientometrics.
J Med Internet Res 2026;28:e109033
URL: https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e109033
DOI: 10.2196/109033
AI Monitoring for Aging at Home: The CHAH Initiative
JMIR Correspondent Jenna Congdon reports on the Comprehensive Healthcare at Home (CHAH) initiative—a partnership between CHAH Technology and McMaster University's Institute for Research on Aging—in " Can Intelligent Monitoring Help Older Adults Live Safely at Home Longer? ". Addressing an increasing demand for long-term care and the risks of aging independently, the CHAH system combines ambient monitoring and algorithmic interpretation of this data to predict, detect, and alert accidents and illnesses. Intelligent monitoring could help older adults safely live on their own, argues Congdon, though she notes that cost, privacy, and consent "must be addressed as systems such as CHAH and others become more widely available."
Please cite as:
Congdon J. Can Intelligent Monitoring Help Older Adults Live Safely at Home Longer?
J Med Internet Res 2026;28:e109278
URL: https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e109278
DOI: 10.2196/109278
The Digital Tools Changing Nursing Workflows
Digital integration and automation is transforming clinical workflows—but do these changes improve working conditions? JMIR Correspondent and researcher Benedette Cuffari explores the potential benefits—and potential burdens—in " US Nursing Strikes Highlight Systemic Challenges: Can Digital Health Be Part of the Solution? ". Speaking with Joe-Ann Fergus, Director of Industrial Relations at the Massachusetts Nurses Association, Cuffari reports on several tools which may help train nurses and offload certain tasks: automated scheduling systems, ambient AI scribes, and virtual simulation platforms. As these, and other, tools continue to integrate into health care systems, the key will be to involve nurses in the design and decision making process, Cuffari argues. "Without this input, digital tools may fail to address the problems they are supposed to solve or introduce new burdens into already strained clinical environments."
Please cite as:
Cuffari B. US Nursing Strikes Highlight Systemic Challenges: Can Digital Health Be Part of the Solution?
J Med Internet Res 2026;28:e109376
URL: https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e109376
DOI: 10.2196/109376
China's AI-Enabled Health Care and the Future of Physicians
In " When the Algorithm Starts Seeing the Patient First: China and the Changing Role of Physicians ", physician and health strategist Ruby Wang analyzes how China's adoption of AI in health care is transforming the nature of health care access and clinical work. According to Wang, China's pre-existing patient-facing digital health infrastructure has facilitated a smoother integration of AI tools, showing the rest of the world "how AI can expand clinical capacity while also redistributing work, authority, and responsibility away from the individual physician,"—at the risk of creating new burdens on healthcare providers, and new barriers for patients with low digital literacy.
Please cite as:
Wang R. When the Algorithm Starts Seeing the Patient First: China and the Changing Role of Physicians.
J Med Internet Res 2026;28:e108939
URL: https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e108939
DOI: 10.2196/108939
Addressing Hepatitis B Underdiagnosis
Digital technologies improve many aspects of hepatitis B care, but they can only go so far in areas with limited access to medical facilities, reports science journalist and JMIR Correspondent Sharon Muzaki in " To Bridge the Hepatitis B Diagnosis Gap in Africa, Innovation Must Go Beyond Digital ". She speaks with South African virologist Dr. Nondumiso Nkosi on her research addressing occult hepatitis B infections, which do not show up on conventional diagnostic tests. "Rather than replacing laboratory or digital diagnostics, Nkosi's team designed HepaSure as a complementary tool
that could extend diagnosis closer to patients," she writes, referring to a prototype for a point-of-care rapid test that could detect occult infections. "The aim is to identify infections that may otherwise be missed while making testing possible in settings without advanced laboratory infrastructure or connectivity."
Please cite as:
Muzaki S. To Bridge the Hepatitis B Diagnosis Gap in Africa, Innovation Must Go Beyond Digital
J Med Internet Res 2026;28:e109287
URL: https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e109287
DOI: 10.2196/109287
