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Researchers say microrobots can deliver stem cells to treat spinal cord injuries

Researchers in Zurich say they have developed a method to use microrobots delivering stem cell therapies to treat spinal cord injuries. According to ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich (UZH), modern therapies for spinal cord injuries attempt to influence implanted stem cells using electrical stimulation, promoting the growth of new nerve cells. However, researchers…

The post Researchers say microrobots can deliver stem cells to treat spinal cord injuries appeared first on Medical Design and Outsourcing.

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User Acceptance of Remote Care Assist, a Telecare System for Home Care Among Care and Nursing Staff: Cross-Sectional Pilot Study

Background: Demographic and epidemiological changes are increasing pressure on health and long-term care systems, underscoring the need for digital innovations. Remote Care Assist is a digital system that enables home care staff to connect with care experts for exchange and support via real-time video calls. Although technology acceptance is crucial for successful implementation, little is known about how care staff’s expected benefits for care recipients influence acceptance in professional home care. Objective: This study examined predictors of user acceptance of the Remote Care Assist among home care staff, with a particular focus on the role of staff’s expectations of benefits for home care service users. Methods: Technology acceptance data were collected from staff in home care organizations in Austria and Luxembourg. Among 337 survey respondents, 139 participants who reported using Remote Care Assist at least once per month over a period of 5-6.5 months were included in the acceptance analysis (45 care experts and 94 on-site care staff). Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to test a contextualized technology acceptance model. Results: Technology acceptance was measured by “Behavioral Intention to Use” the Remote Care Assist. “Behavioral Intention to Use” was positively associated with “Expected Benefit for Home Care Service Users” (EBC; =0.506, 95% CI 0.364 to 0.658; <.001), “Perceived Usefulness (PU)” for care staff (=0.314, 95% CI 0.151 to 0.460; <.001), and “Perceived Ease of Use” (PEOU; =0.130, 95% CI 0.038 to 0.231; =.01). “EBC” (=0.415, 95% CI 0.276 to 0.537; <.001), “Perceived Efficiency” (=0.396, 95% CI 0.267 to 0.531; <.001), and “PEOU” (=0.170, 95% CI 0.083 to 0.266; =.001) were positively associated with “PU” for care staff. “PU” also positively mediated the associations of “EBC” (=0.130, 95% CI 0.061 to 0.194; =.001) and “PEOU” (=0.053, 95% CI 0.017 to 0.101; =.02) with “Behavioral Intention to Use.” “Reliable Functionality” was not significantly associated with “PU.” Conclusions: This study suggests that the technology acceptance of a digital system for enhancing professional exchange between different staff groups in home care is shaped not only by established predictors of acceptance, such as PU and PEOU, but also by a currently neglected predictor, namely care staff’s expectations that the technology will benefit home care service users, which plays an important role in technology acceptance. In addition to usability and workflow support, successful implementation strategies for digital technologies should clearly communicate the technology’s potential benefits for care staff, care service users, and the broader care ecosystem.
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Tics and OCD: Why Treatments Differ and Ways to Support Your Kids

by Dr. Christine Conelea and Dr. Adrienne Manbeck

Tics, compulsions, and obsessions are part of many people’s everyday lives. As clinicians and researchers at the University of Minnesota Tic and Compulsivity Lab (MnTiC), we see people living with different, unique combinations of these symptoms that can feel interconnected. There are some broad differences between tics, obsessions, and compulsions, but it’s important to note that they do overlap and that a person can have all of these things at the same time. Still, disentangling symptoms in order to provide effective treatment can sometimes be challenging. 

Tics and compulsions are similar in that they both involve movements that are repetitive and difficult for the person to control. Research has shown that overlapping genetic, neurological, and psychological factors contribute to both experiences. Because of this, some researchers and clinicians consider both tics and compulsions to be on the “obsessive-compulsive spectrum.” However, there are important differences in treatment and in how loved ones can provide support.

Behaviors

Tics are sudden, repetitive, involuntary movements or sounds that are usually very brief.   Common tics include rapid or hard eye blinking, facial scrunching, throat clearing or sniffing. In our studies, we have found that people with tics have an average of 8 tics per minute. 

Many individuals with tics experience an urge right before they tic. This urge can feel like tension, an itch or pressure that typically goes away after the tic occurs. Tics tend to   wax and wane over time. Compulsions are often more rule bound or rigid and are driven by a thought. Common compulsions include checking, counting, washing and reordering. They tend to be longer, smooth movements or sequences of movements. They’re linked to very specific situations, triggers, or thoughts to prevent something bad from happening or to relieve anxiety. Compulsions can also be done in one’s head–like reviewing a memory or providing yourself reassurance.

Why Treatments Differ

Although tic disorders and OCD sometimes look similar on the surface (repetitive movements can occur in both), they are different disorders. Subjectively speaking, tics can feel like a “body itch” while compulsions might feel like a “brain itch.” Though they may be very connected for some people, what works for one won’t necessarily work for the other. 

In general, we often take a less interventionist approach to tic disorders because tics may not be inherently harmful. On the other hand, because compulsions work to reinforce obsessive thoughts and provide escape from non-harmful but unpleasant feelings, we often intervene with OCD as soon as possible. As clinicians working with children and teens, we want to help kids learn to be brave, learn that they can tolerate distress associated with anxiety, and learn that OCD doesn’t get to make their decisions for them. 

Watchful Waiting

In general, OCD will not get better on its own. If a parent notices symptoms associated with distress or impairment, taking action of some kind is often the best approach. If tics aren’t causing problems for a child, it might be best to monitor. If tics become painful, start to bother your child, or in some other way cause harm, that might be the time to pursue treatment. The American Academy of Neurology refers to this as “watchful waiting” and sees it as an appropriate treatment, in some cases, for tics.

Tips for Providing Support

People with tic disorders face high stigma and discrimination compared to the general population. Tics are often hyper-visible and poorly understood. For OCD, stigma is more likely to emerge from public messaging rather than hypervisibility. The general public talks about OCD in a highly stereotyped way that misses a lot of people’s actual experiences with OCD and can trivialize symptoms. 

For both OCD and tic disorders, parents can help support their child by collaboratively developing a reward structure for hard work in therapy.

For tic disorders, research has shown that situational factors have an important role in influencing tics, including what a person is doing, who is around them, and how they are feeling. Most people can identify situational factors that make their tics better or worse. Some factors frequently associated with tic exacerbation are fatigue, social events, and starting school in the fall. Stress, frustration, or anxiety-provoking events can make it harder for the brain to inhibit tics. Events frequently reported to coincide with tic reductions include social interactions with familiar people, situations in which the individual is a passive participant or deeply focused on a task, and leisure activities. 

Because tics are so reactive to situational factors, one of the best ways to provide support is to create tic-neutral environments. This means eliminating intended or unintended consequences related to the tics, such as minimizing reactions to tics or changes to activities because of tics. We frame this as, “focusing on the person instead of the tics.” Tic neutrality can also help children feel better about tics since they can’t control them. 

For OCD, minimizing parent accommodation, or the things that parents do to help their kids avoid feeling anxious, can be helpful. Parents can help their kids by reducing accommodation and encouraging their children to be brave and face their fears in manageable, developmentally-appropriate ways.

About the Authors:

Christine Conelea, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the University of Minnesota, a licensed clinical psychologist, and the director of the MnTiC Lab. Dr. Conelea’s research interests include Tourette Syndrome/tic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and anxiety disorders. She is particularly interested in understanding how the brain, environment, and psychosocial factors interact to impact symptoms and treatment outcomes.

Adrienne Manbeck, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow in the MnTiC Lab. Dr. Manbeck earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Minnesota and completed her pre-doctoral internship at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. Dr. Manbeck’s research aims to better understand the development, maintenance, and treatment of OCD and anxiety disorders across the lifespan, with a particular emphasis on the impact of societal stressors on these disorders, including the ways in which societal stressors impact symptom severity, access to high-quality treatment, and impact of treatment on symptoms.

More Reading:

Micali, N., Heyman, I., Perez, M., Hilton, K., Nakatani, E., Turner, C., & Mataix-Cols, D. (2010). Long-term outcomes of obsessive–compulsive disorder: Follow-up of 142 children and adolescents. British Journal of Psychiatry, 197(2), 128–134. 

Conelea, C.A., Woods, D.W., Zinner, S.H. et al. The Impact of Tourette Syndrome in Adults: Results from the Tourette Syndrome Impact Survey. Community Ment Health J 49, 110–120 (2013).

Tourette Association of America Tourette Awareness Month resources

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The post Tics and OCD: Why Treatments Differ and Ways to Support Your Kids appeared first on International OCD Foundation.

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Detection of Self-Harm in Electronic Mental Health Records Using Privacy-Preserving Local Language Models: Methodological Study

Background: Self-harm is the strongest risk factor for suicide and an important outcome for mental health care. Although prevalent in clinical populations, it is often imprecisely captured in routinely collected clinical data, where it is often recorded and stored as unstructured free text. Contemporary language models, such as GPT (OpenAI) and Gemini (Google), can analyze free-text clinical notes, but such models may violate data governance of processing sensitive patient data. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate whether a privacy-preserving language model running entirely within an institution’s secure computing infrastructure (here, the UK National Health Service [NHS]) could accurately identify the presence and timing of self-harm using electronic health records from secondary mental health care. Methods: Clinical notes were drawn from Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust using a multistage workflow: (1) a random sample of 1000 patients with a psychiatric diagnosis, defined according to the (; codes F00–F99); (2) candidate-note identification using a Gemma3-4b language model to flag notes containing self-harm content; and (3) from those candidates, 1352 randomly sampled notes were selected for expert annotation, resulting in gold-standard corpus enriched for self-harm content. Clinical notes were annotated for the presence of self-harm and its timing (≤90 days, >90 days, or unknown). A privacy-preserving locally served 27-billion-parameter Gemma 3 language model (“Gemma3-27b”) was used as the core model. Prompts were systematically developed and refined using a labeled development set to identify self-harm and generate a structured output per clinical record. Gemma3-27b performance was compared against a strong baseline multilabel text classification model based on robustly optimized BERT pretraining approach (RoBERTa), a transformer-based language model architecture. Model performance was evaluated using precision, recall, and the -score (harmonic mean of precision and recall), with 95% CIs estimated from 1000 bootstrap samples with replacement. Results: Gemma3-27b outperformed the RoBERTa classifier across all categories, achieving Precision=0.92, Recall=0.92 (sensitivity), and -score=0.92 for notes containing self-harm, and Precision=0.97, Recall=0.97 (specificity), and -score=0.97 for notes without self-harm. For the 51 notes labeled as recent self-harm in the held-out test set, Gemma3-27b achieved Precision=0.84, Recall=0.75, and -score=0.79. The global weighted -score of Gemma3-27b across all categories was 0.88, compared to 0.85 for RoBERTa. Conclusions: With systematic prompt development on a labeled development set, but no gradient-based fine-tuning, the current Gemma3-27b language model matched or exceeded a fine-tuned RoBERTa classifier for ascertaining self-harm events and their timing. Aggregate gains were modest, while improvements were largest in the most challenging, lower-frequency timing categories. On a simplified binary recent-versus-other task, RoBERTa performed marginally better, indicating that supervised classifiers remain highly effective when the task is simplified and sufficient labeled data exist. This work demonstrates the technical feasibility of privacy-preserving self-harm detection within a secure NHS research environment.
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Recommendations for Research and Clinical Implementation of Ambulatory Assessment, Mood Monitoring, Digital Phenotyping, and Remote Measurement Technology in Mood Disorders: Synthesis of Systematic Review Findings

Background: Ambulatory assessment and active and passive monitoring all offer a real-time, flexible approach to assessing mood and behavior in mood disorders. Despite their potential, concerns remain regarding the performance, usability, adherence, and potential safety of these tools. Objective: This study synthesizes the findings from 7 systematic reviews, integrating quantitative and qualitative data from randomized trials, observational studies, and user experience research to evaluate the performance, feasibility, acceptability, and clinical impact of ambulatory assessment and mood monitoring in people with depression and bipolar disorder. We assessed studies over the medium or long term (3 months or more). Methods: A summary of a series of systematic reviews was carried out by the authors—including meta-analyses (for quantitative data) and meta-syntheses (for qualitative data). Eight electronic databases were searched, and mixed methods studies were included. Studies were assessed for risk of bias. The results were checked for coherence, and recommendations were made by individuals with lived experience, methodologists, and psychiatrists. GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) was used to assess the quality and strength of the evidence. Results: The 111 included studies included 19,945 participants and used 69 different ambulatory assessment protocols or mood-monitoring interventions. Key barriers to implementation were identified, including performance inconsistency, adverse effects, and user disengagement. Evidence-based recommendations are provided to guide future clinical and research applications. Conclusions: Ambulatory assessment and mood monitoring hold promise in research and clinical practice, yet their implementation requires more rigorous evaluation, greater personalization, and responsible, user-centered design. Crucially, these measures can add granularity and confirmation, but additional context is often required, and none of these measures are robust enough yet to replace current outcomes.
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Eye-Tracking Technologies for Cognitive Assessment After Acquired Brain Injury: Systematic Review

Background: Acquired brain injury (ABI) is a heterogeneous umbrella term encompassing traumatic and nontraumatic etiologies and is frequently associated with persistent cognitive dysfunction. Conventional neuropsychological assessment remains central to clinical evaluation, but feasibility and measurement precision may be limited in individuals with motor impairment, aphasia, reduced stamina, or fluctuating arousal. Eye tracking offers an objective, low-burden approach that can quantify gaze behavior during task engagement and may provide complementary process-level markers of cognition. Objective: This study aimed to systematically synthesize the evidence on eye-tracking paradigms used as a primary approach for cognitive assessment in ABI and to summarize findings by cognitive domain, paradigm, and clinical interpretability. Methods: We conducted a PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) 2020–compliant systematic review and registered the protocol in PROSPERO (CRD420251038768). PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, Embase, EBSCOhost, PsycINFO, and Scopus were searched from inception to April 10, 2025. We included peer-reviewed English-language studies enrolling children or adults with ABI in which eye tracking was the primary assessment modality used to quantify at least one cognitive domain or clinically relevant cognitive-communication process. Two reviewers independently screened studies, extracted data, and assessed methodological quality using design-appropriate tools (Risk of Bias 2, Risk of Bias in Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions, Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2, and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale). A structured narrative synthesis was performed because of heterogeneity in paradigms and outcome definitions. Results: Twenty-seven studies met the inclusion criteria (N=872 participants; females: n=354 and males: n=518), with most evidence derived from mild traumatic brain injury cohorts, and fewer studies involving stroke, mixed etiologies, and disorders of consciousness. Across domains, antisaccade and related paradigms were commonly associated with differences in inhibitory control and executive function, while predictive tracking, smooth pursuit, and target-blanking paradigms frequently captured alterations in attentional prediction and timing. Virtual reality (VR) free-viewing paradigms identified visuospatial exploration asymmetries in stroke-related neglect, and gaze-based human-computer interface approaches demonstrated above-chance task performance in a subset of patients with disorders of consciousness. Evidence for incremental validity beyond conventional assessment was mixed and often indirect, and safety reporting was uncommon. Overall certainty of evidence was generally low and limited by small sample sizes, cross-sectional designs, and heterogeneity in acquisition procedures, metrics, and analytic pipelines. Conclusions: Eye tracking shows potential as an adjunctive, process-level approach for quantifying specific cognition-relevant behaviors after ABI, particularly within paradigms targeting inhibitory control and predictive attention. Current evidence is insufficient to support broad diagnostic claims or the routine replacement of conventional neuropsychological assessment. Future research should prioritize harmonized paradigms and reporting standards, external validation of classification models, longitudinal designs, and explicit feasibility and safety reporting to clarify when eye tracking provides incremental clinical value for precision neurorehabilitation.
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Mental Health Fitness Through a Youth Perspective 

Insights on building and advancing mental health care solutions through collaboration — from the Global Youth Advisory Council at the SNF Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute

Mai El Shoush, Partnerships Campaign Manager, Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute

Tatiana P. Claridad, MBA, Director of Board Affairs and Institutional Strategy, Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute

Mental health fitness is shaped by lived experience, context, and the systems of care that surround us. During Mental Health Awareness Month, we invited young leaders from the Global Youth Advisory Council (GYAC) at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center at the Child Mind Institute — from Brazil, South Africa, and Greece — to share their unique perspectives.

Their reflections offer insight into how young people define, build, and experience mental fitness globally, highlighting the influence of their environments, communities and everyday realities. Their views are essential to shaping more relevant and effective support for young people everywhere.

From left to right: Delice Lumbu, Mariana Rodrigues Chaves, Spyros Chronis, Faidra Kamperidi, Kayla Coetzer, Denny Oliveira Curini, Jennifer Matibi

From daily habits to systemic change, here’s how young people are reimagining mental health care as mental health fitness:

“By cultivating a practice of self-awareness — through understanding myself and my internal needs better, I’m able to show up for myself in the ways that I need in those moments of struggle.”

Kayla Coetzer, 24, South Africa

“In this fast-paced world, it’s important to take a step back, disconnect from the digital world, and engage with friends…try helping others and don’t be afraid to ask for help if needed.”

Spyros Chronis, 20, Greece

“I honor my journey by normalizing help‑seeking and reminding myself that mental health is an ongoing process that requires care, patience, and the courage to choose growth, even in environments where it is not always encouraged.”

Jennifer Matibi, 24, South Africa

“For me, keeping my mental health fit is about understanding and embracing my talents and weaknesses, and dedicating time to spaces that value my uniqueness.”

Mariana Rodrigues Chaves, 18, Brazil

“I try to find ways to ground myself and do things that people my age typically do. Making mistakes is acceptable and often necessary for personal growth.”

Faidra Kamperidi, 19, Greece

“Young people can build mental health fitness in their everyday lives through self-care, doing things that energize and restore them, practicing self-compassion, and surrounding themselves with supportive people. It’s about creating small, consistent habits that allow you to show up for yourself, even on hard days.”

Delice Lumbu, 20, Director of Youth Engagement, SNF Global Center

These reflections raise a broader question — how can global collaboration strengthen mental health support for children and adolescents?

“Global collaboration in youth mental health means real change to me. When countries unite around one shared goal — safeguarding young people’s mental health — they’re investing in their own future.”

Denny Oliveira Curini, 17, Brazil

“Mental health challenges are deeply influenced by social, economic, and cultural conditions, and real growth happens when solutions are shaped within those contexts. Global collaboration creates opportunities to share lived experiences, exchange practical knowledge, and adapt tools that are both relevant and accessible. It allows us to learn from one another across borders while empowering communities with skills, resources, and frameworks that support mental growth. From my experience, collaboration is not about imposing solutions, but about co‑creating safe, healthy spaces that enable young people to build resilience, develop agency, and flourish even in environments where those opportunities are often limited.”

Jennifer Matibi, 24, South Africa

“To me, global collaboration in youth mental health represents a shift from pockets of innovation to a ‘culture of quality’ that doesn’t stop at a country’s border. It’s the recognition that while mental health struggles are a rising universal problem, the solutions are often trapped in local silos or limited by a country’s wealth. Therefore, global partnership is the bridge that allows solutions to be shaped, shared, adapted, and standardized to ensure that no one is left behind.”

Spyros Chronis, 20, Greece

“Global collaboration in youth mental health means bringing different regions’ perspectives [together] to debate and understand our similarities and differences, to then work on solutions that cross borders and change lives.”

Mariana Rodrigues Chaves, 18, Brazil

“Nowadays, young people tend to feel overwhelmed by the excessive pace of technological evolution. The constant stimuli and the pervasive flow of information put us in a position where we constantly compare ourselves to others, feeling that our efforts are never enough compared to what we see online. Together, let’s set a human example: Progress can be gradual, and it is perfectly okay to feel like you are falling behind.”

Faidra Kamperidi, 19, Greece

“Global collaboration in youth mental health means looking at shared challenges and pooling resources to tackle them together, while keeping cultural uniqueness at the forefront of country-specific solutions and care.”

Kayla Coetzer, 24, South Africa

While these insights from the GYAC members highlight the importance of collaboration, they also reflect a new paradigm of youth leadership.

What continues to inspire you as a young leader about the ideas and perspectives shared through the Global Youth Advisory Council, and what does it say about the future of mental health care?

“What continues to inspire me most is the diversity of perspectives across different countries, yet the shared commitment to improving youth mental health. There is something powerful about young people coming together across contexts, bridging gaps through a global lens while staying rooted in their lived experiences. It reminds me that the future of mental health care will be more inclusive, shaped by real voices, and focused on breaking stigma in ways that feel authentic and meaningful.”

Delice Lumbu, 20, Director of Youth Engagement, SNF Global Center

Contributors: Delice Lumbu, Director of Youth Engagement, Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute

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Asynchronous Broadcasting of Audiovisual Content as a Telerehabilitation Strategy for Patients in Rural Areas: Development and Usability Study

Background: Geographical and economic barriers limit access to health care services in rural regions of Colombia. In San Vicente del Caguán, the lack of infrastructure and rehabilitation professionals forces patients to travel long distances. Asynchronous telerehabilitation using video broadcasting is a viable strategy to address these challenges. Objective: This study aims to design and validate a telerehabilitation model using asynchronous audiovisual content broadcasting for rural patients, evaluating functionality, usability, and clinical effectiveness. Methods: A 4-stage case study developed and validated the model in San Vicente del Caguán: (1) analysis of telemedicine experiences and video-based therapy; (2) solution design including telecommunications infrastructure (radio links and Wi-Fi), mobile app (HSRehabiAPP), and web platform (HSRehabiWEB); (3) fieldwork with 7 patients receiving physical, occupational, or speech therapy, evaluating functionality (11 criteria), usability (8 criteria), and content quality (5 criteria); and (4) results analysis. The infrastructure connected San Rafael Hospital with remote centers in Los Pozos and Tres Esquinas. Participants (aged 7-68 years) from urban and rural areas had conditions including stroke, shoulder injuries, knee pathologies, hypertension, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Results: All 7 patients achieved 100% compliance across functional, usability, and audiovisual content criteria. Functional evaluation covered login, navigation, therapy access, session viewing, exercise execution, pain assessment, therapist communication, and satisfaction surveys. Usability assessment evaluated initial access, content location, navigation comfort, instructional guidance, session organization, video playback, instruction clarity, and interface intuitiveness. Content criteria included exercise clarity, step-by-step instructions, visual quality, audio quality, and correct posture demonstration. Patients reported high satisfaction, noting reduced travel costs and time, family convenience, and effective outcomes. Offline functionality proved essential in areas with limited internet connectivity. Conclusions: The asynchronous audiovisual telerehabilitation model is an effective solution for improving access to rehabilitation services in rural areas. It successfully addressed geographical barriers and infrastructure limitations while maintaining clinical effectiveness across therapies. Implementation requires adequate technological infrastructure, user-friendly platforms with offline capabilities, and quality therapeutic content. Future work demands inclusive health policies, professional training, and research with larger sample sizes to assess long-term sustainability in diverse rural contexts.
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