JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent need to social distance resulted in immediate pivoting of research that had previously been conducted in person to virtual data collection. Thus, researchers had to develop data collection protocols that could be conducted remotely with limited or no evidence to guide the implementation of these virtual methods. As a result, the use of virtual platforms to conduct real-time research visits surged despite the lack of evidence backing these novel approaches. The aim of the current paper was to review virtual research methods and protocols to identify best practices for virtual real-time data collection. Articles (n=22) published from 2013 to June 2023 were reviewed and analyzed with the aim of understanding how researchers have conducted virtual research and implemented virtual real-time protocols over the past 10 years and to identify lessons learned. Results of the review suggest that there is diversity in how data collection visits were adapted and implemented to be conducted virtually and in real-time. Further, patterns regarding the components of virtual real-time data collection protocols that were most useful and successfully implemented by researchers emerged. Best practice recommendations are identified and presented for researchers considering the use of virtual real-time data collection.