Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Feb 2, 2021
Date Accepted: May 12, 2021
Defining the scope of digital public health and its implication for policy, practice and research: A scoping review protocol
ABSTRACT
Background:
There has been rapid development and application of digital technologies in public health domains, which are considered to have the potential to transform public health. However, this growing interest in digital tools in public health has not been accompanied by a clarity of scope to guide policy, practice, and research in this rapidly emergent field.
Objective:
This scoping review seeks to determine the scope of digital health as described by public health researchers and practitioners, and to consolidate a conceptual framework of digital public health.
Methods:
The review follows Arksey and O’Malley’s framework for conducting scoping reviews with improvements as suggested by Levac. The search strategy will be applied to Embase, Medline and Google Scholar. A grey literature search will be conducted on intergovernmental agency websites and country specific websites. Titles and abstracts will be reviewed by independent reviewers, while full text reviews will be conducted by two reviewers to determine eligibility based on prespecified inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data will be coded using an iterative approach using the best-fit framework analysis methodology.
Results:
This research project received funding by the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) Foundation for Population and Public Health on the 1st of January 2020. The initial search was conducted on the 1st of June 2020, and returned 6,895 articles in total. After deduplication, 4412 abstracts have been earmarked for review.
Conclusions:
Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval is not required for this review as it uses publicly available data. Results of the review will be strategically disseminated through publications in scientific journals, conferences and engagement fora with relevant stakeholders. Clinical Trial: Not Applicable
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