JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The use of digital technologies, such as computers, the Internet, and mobile phones, has surged and emerged as a critical tool in healthcare. These tools enable remote access through video meetings and text-based meetings. They help in patient pre-screening, counselling services such as nutrition and mental health, remote patient tracking, and patient monitoring. With the increasing demand for technologies, tools, and applications, healthcare professionals require training and educational competency development to sustain in the modern digital age. Therefore, there is a need to synthesise the evidence about the existing types of training programmes in arranging and regulating such meetings and how they were implemented, providing reassurance about the effectiveness of these digital health solutions.

Objective:

This scoping review aims to compile and synthesise the best available evidence regarding the training of healthcare professionals in conducting video and text-based meetings with patients, such as email, chat, and web portals. The synthesis will also uncover what training programs are available and, if so, how they were implemented and what their impacts are from the perspectives of the organisation, the staff, and the patients.

Methods:

The review will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology. The published studies will be searched through PsychInfo, APA PsycInfo, PUBMED, and CINAHL and the unpublished studies through Mednar, Trove, OCLC WorldCat, and Dissertations and Theses. Studies published in English from 2003 will be considered. This review will include studies of healthcare professionals trained to communicate online with patients or service users, healthcare professionals and healthcare organisations. The concept will involve online communication, such as conducting video and text-based meetings (emails, chats, web portals), and the context will consider studies based on healthcare, hospitals or clinics, and primary care. A broad scope of evidence, including quantitative, qualitative, text and opinion studies, will be considered. Two independent reviewers will screen the titles and abstracts and review the full text. Data will be extracted from the included studies using a data extraction tool developed for this study.

Results:

The results will be presented in a PRISMA flow diagram. A draft charting table will be developed as a data extraction tool. The results will be presented as a 'map' of the data in a logical, diagrammatic, or tabular form and a descriptive format. This protocol was first developed by the principal author at Linnaeus University in April 2022; however, a full search was undertaken in August 2024 as part of research development at the University of Bradford.

Conclusions:

The evidence synthesis is expected to uncover evidence about the existing training programmes for arranging and regulating online meetings, how they were implemented, and the training's results from the perspectives of the organisation, the staff, and the patients. The review will identify the knowledge gaps, clarify the concepts, examine emerging evidence, and thus make recommendations for future research on video consultation and text-based meetings.