Global Evidence on the Rapid Adoption of Telemedicine in Primary Care During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Scoping Review Protocol.

Abstract

Abstract Background: Before the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, primary care relied on face-to-face consultations, with relatively limited use of telemedicine. The rapid uptake that occurred following the onset of the pandemic in countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand prompts questions around the drivers and extent of this transformation in clinical practice at global level. The purpose of this scoping review is to explore the global evidence surrounding the rapid adoption of telemedicine in primary care settings during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A draft protocol was tested through an initial search on Ovid Medline, Web of Science and Google Scholar with additional searches on the Cochrane Database. This informed the final selection of terms which will be use to search Ovid, Web of Science, Google Scholar, PROSPERO and Cochrane Library, filtering for studies from the pandemic declaration onwards. Additional grey literature reports will be sourced through simplified searches on appropriate search engines in widely spoken languages. Duplicates will be removed by screening titles. Abstracts and grey literature text extracts will be screened based on pre-set eligibility criteria by an automated tool and further screened by the lead researcher. Abstracts (and extracts in the case of grey literature) will be mapped against the domains of the Non-adoption, Abandonment, and challenges to Scale-up, Spread and Sustainability (NASSS) framework. Data will be presented in table format. Discussion: This review will map the current literature to identify current gaps in evidence related to the adoption of telemedicine after the declaration of the pandemic in March 2020. The use of simplified searches in the most spoken languages in the world is aimed at capturing more immediate non-academic reflections and experiences on this major service change at a global level.Systematic review registration: Study has been registered on Open Science Framework and can be accessed through the following URL: https://osf.io/4z5ut/