Professional-Facing Digital Health Solutions for the Care of Patients With Chronic Pain: Protocol for a Systematic Scoping Review

Abstract

Background Chronic pain is a highly prevalent condition and one of the most common reasons why people seek health care. As a result, chronic pain has a significant personal and economic burden. The COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the situation for patients with chronic pain through increased risk factors (eg, anxiety or depression) as well as decreased access to health care. Digital health solutions to support people with chronic pain are becoming increasingly popular. Most of the research has focused on patient-facing digital health solutions, although it is clear that the involvement of health and care professionals is crucial in chronic pain care. Certainly, digital health solutions intended for the use of health and care professionals in the care of patients with chronic pain (ie, professional facing) exist, for example, for clinical decision support; however, no review has investigated the studies reporting these interventions. Objective The overall aim of this scoping review is to identify the available professional-facing digital health solutions for the purpose of chronic pain management. The objectives of this review are to investigate the components, target populations, and user settings of the available professional-facing digital solutions; health and care professionals’ perspectives on using digital health solutions (if reported); the methods in which the digital health solutions are developed; and the outcomes of using professional-facing digital health solutions. Methods Databases including MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycInfo, and Inspec will be searched for studies reporting professional-facing digital health solutions for chronic pain care, using a comprehensive search strategy developed for each of the specific databases. A total of 2 independent reviewers will screen the titles and abstracts for review inclusion and then conduct full-text screening. Any conflicts in study inclusion will be resolved by a third reviewer at each stage of the screening process. Following data extraction and quality assessment, a qualitative content analysis of the results will be conducted. This review will identify the available professional-facing digital health solutions for chronic pain management. The results of this review are likely to be heterogeneous in terms of content (ie, the digital solutions will serve a variety of purposes, settings, target populations, etc) and methods (ie, experimental and nonexperimental designs). Results The review is expected to finish in March 2024 and published in the summer of 2024. Conclusions This protocol outlines the need for a scoping review to identify professional-facing digital health solutions for the management of chronic pain. Results from this review will contribute to the growing field of research into the utility of digital health for chronic pain management. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/51311