Emojis and Emoticons in Health Care and Dermatology Communication: Narrative Review

Understanding individuals with spinal cord injury's self-care practices: a technology probe study to promote pressure relief adherence

Pressure reliefs (PRs) are self-care practices essential for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) to prevent life-threatening pressure injuries (PIs). Despite the benefits, individuals often do not do these exercises at home, leading to increased patient morbidity and mortality. To examine how digital technology could improve this population's adherence to PR exercises, we conducted a technology probe study with five individuals with SCI over ten consecutive business days. A chat-based intervention was created to send user-scheduled PR reminders, which were personalized with visual elements and progress trackers. Participants were interviewed before and after interacting with the probe to better understand their experiences with PIs and PR practices. Results shed light on specific factors that may impact individuals with SCI's behaviours towards PRs and four considerations to design a customisable reminder intervention: (1) easy to use and friendly technology, (2) design-your-own- schedule feature, (3) communication style feature, and (4) dialogue support features. Personalisation supported with gamified visual progress tracking and motivational messages emerged as a strong strategy to increase PR adherence. Both sets of findings expand upon the human-computer interaction (HCI) literature for mobile health tools that encourage self-care practices; in particular, to the specific needs of individuals with SCI and the use of visual elements to increase engagement.

Biodiversity communication in the digital era through the Emoji tree of life

Emojis enable direct expressions of ideas and emotions in digital communication, also contributing to discussions on biodiversity conservation. Nevertheless, the ability of emojis to represent the Earth's tree of life remains unexplored. Here, we quantified the taxonomic comprehensiveness of currently available nature-related emojis and tested whether the expanding availability of emojis enables a better coverage of extant biodiversity. Currently available emojis encompass a broad range of animal species, while plants, fungi, and microorganisms are underrepresented. Within animals, vertebrates are significantly overrepresented compared to their actual richness, while arthropods are underrepresented. Notwithstanding these taxonomic disparities, animal taxa represented by emojis more than doubled from 2015 to 2022, allowing an improved representation of both taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity, driven by the recent addition of cnidarians and annelids. Creating an inclusive emoji set is essential to ensure a fair representation of biodiversity in digital communication and showcase its importance for biosphere functioning.

Emoji Education: How Students Can Help Increase Health Awareness by Making Emojis

Emojis can improve health communication, especially when incorporating emojis into traditionally word-only texts. Beyond improving communication, emojis also offer greater access to health care, especially for vulnerable and marginalized populations with limited health literacy. A recent study found that 94% of patients with limited health literacy preferred health reports with emojis. Moreover, health officials are considering adding emojis to cardiopulmonary resuscitation guidelines and public health guidelines for handwashing. As the world evolves with new technology and new methods of communication, we must also evolve the language and method we use to communicate health information to patients. In this viewpoint, we aim to discuss the methods health care professionals can use to develop novel communication methods using emojis and the benefits of their incorporation into health care communication.