Health Care Professionals' Experiences and Perspectives on Using Telehealth for Home-Based Palliative Care: Protocol for a Scoping Review.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Telehealth seems feasible for use in home-based palliative care. However, acceptance among health care professionals (HCPs) is essential for the successful delivery of telehealth in practice. No scoping review has mapped the experiences and perspectives of HCPs on the use of telehealth for home-based palliative care. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review is to systematically map published studies on HCPs' experiences and perspectives on the use of telehealth in home-based palliative care. METHODS: The proposed scoping review will employ the methodology of Arksey and O'Malley. This protocol is guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocol (PRISMA-P). A systematic search will be performed in MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL, Allied and Complementary Medicine (AMED), and Web of Science for studies published between January 2000 and July 5, 2021. We will also hand search the reference lists of included papers to identify additional studies of relevance. The search will be updated in 2022. Pairs of authors will independently assess the eligibility of studies and extract data. The first 2 stages of thematic synthesis will be used to thematically organize the data. Because the scoping review methodology consists of reviewing and collecting data from publicly available materials, this study does not require ethics approval. RESULTS: The database searches; testing of eligibility criteria; and screening of titles, abstracts, and full-text papers will be performed by fall 2021. The results from this scoping review will be presented as a descriptive summary of the results from all included papers, and will be inductively organized into descriptive themes. A frequency table illustrating which papers were included in which descriptive themes will be made. Results are anticipated by the fall of 2022. CONCLUSIONS: A mapping of studies could identify research gaps regarding HCPs' experiences and perspectives on the use of telehealth in home-based palliative care and may determine the value and feasibility of conducting a full systematic review. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID) PRR1-10.2196/33305.