Smartphone News and Research

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Wearable devices track real-time health effects of pollution and heat

As climate change drives more frequent extreme heat and worsening air pollution, researchers are seeking better ways to understand how these exposures affect health in real time.

8 May 2026

NIH awards $44 million for landmark study on health challenges in the rural South

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UT San Antonio) has been awarded a five-year, $44 million contract from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health for a landmark study focused on persistent health challenges in the rural South.

30 Apr 2026

AI and CRISPR technologies drive proactive health monitoring

JMIR Publications today featured two new stories in its News and Perspectives section, highlighting a shift toward proactive, tech-integrated health monitoring.

30 Apr 2026

Wearable sweat sensor tracks vitamin levels in real time

Researchers developed a wearable electrochemical patch that detects six vitamins in sweat at nanomolar levels, combining sweat induction, microfluidic sampling, wireless readout, and pH/ionic-strength calibration. Human testing focused mainly on vitamin B9, showing sweat levels rose after supplementation or a vitamin B9-rich diet and correlated with serum levels, supporting future use for non-invasive nutrition trend monitoring.

28 Apr 2026

Swapping passive screen time with mental activity may cut dementia risk

Research shows that mentally active sedentary behavior can reduce dementia risk, emphasizing the importance of daily cognitive engagement for brain health.

9 Apr 2026

Smartphone app HabitWorks improves anxiety and depression symptoms

In an effort to increase access to evidence-based interventions to help manage anxiety and depression, Mass General Brigham investigators have developed and tested a novel digital intervention called HabitWorks.

2 Apr 2026

Angioplasty improves symptoms in chronic total coronary occlusion patients

In what is believed to be the first randomized placebo-controlled trial of its kind, patients with a chronic total blockage of a coronary artery who received a nonsurgical procedure to reopen the artery showed statistically significant reductions in chest pain and improvements in quality of life compared with patients who received a placebo procedure.

29 Mar 2026

Sleep apps help you track sleep, but can they also increase anxiety?

Sleep apps offer data-driven insights for better rest, but may increase anxiety in some users. Study reveals varied effects based on demographics and insomnia.

25 Mar 2026

New skin atlas maps over one million cells across the human body

Mount Sinai researchers have published the first organ-wide human skin spatial atlas from across the body.

25 Mar 2026

AI-based ECG interpretation outperforms standard diagnosis of occlusive myocardial infarction

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based ECG interpretation outperformed standard pathways for the detection of occlusive myocardial infarction (MI), according to a study presented today at ESC Acute CardioVascular Care 2026,1 the annual congress of the Association for Acute CardioVascular Care (ACVC), a branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

23 Mar 2026

App-based therapy helps men improve control over premature ejaculation

A smartphone app designed to tackle the underlying psychological causes of premature ejaculation can significantly improve sex life and delay ejaculation, while offering a way to reduce stigma around the condition, say researchers.

13 Mar 2026

Study links excessive smartphone use with poor body image and disordered eating

New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London has found that excessive smartphone use is closely associated with disordered eating, including uncontrolled eating and emotional overeating, as well greater symptoms of food addiction in young people with no diagnosis of an eating disorder.

13 Mar 2026

Teens check their phones up to 144 times during school; and it may affect cognitive control

The study finds that high smartphone use in school affects cognitive control in youths, indicating a need for policies to manage digital engagement effectively.

13 Mar 2026

New review calls for biologically grounded approach to psychiatric diagnosis

A comprehensive invited review published today in Brain Medicine confronts one of the most persistent paradoxes in modern medicine: psychiatry remains the only major clinical discipline that diagnoses complex illness primarily through conversation and symptom checklists, while fields such as oncology and cardiology long ago embraced laboratory markers, imaging, and molecular profiling.

10 Mar 2026

Using a smartwatch to detect changes in brain health

Can smartphones or smartwatches help detect early signs of neurological or mental illness? Researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) monitored a group of participants wearing connected devices, and used artificial intelligence to analyze data such as heart rate, physical activity, sleep and air pollution.

10 Mar 2026

Frequent phone checking linked to weaker attention in middle and high school students

A new study from researchers at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill finds that middle and high school students spend nearly one-third of the school day on their smartphones, checking them dozens of times, often for social media and entertainment, with frequent checking linked to weaker attention and impulse control.

9 Mar 2026