Remote monitoring for long-term physical health conditions: Protocol for an evidence and gap map

Abstract

This protocol is for an NIHR HSDR commissioned project that aims to map systematic reviews on the use of remote monitoring interventions for adults living with long term physical health conditions. Remote monitoring allows a health care professional to assess and manage the health of a patient, without the need for the patient to be seen face-to-face. This may involve the use of technologies such as wearable or assistive home devices, offering opportunities for innovation in the health care system, and could contribute to effective self-management and the delivery of personalised care. Remote monitoring also has the potential to increase efficiency and reduce health care costs. Having access to current evidence on the most effective forms of remote monitoring, and factors affecting the acceptability and implementation of these interventions, will support their commissioning and delivery by health care providers.

We aim to systematically map the volume, diversity and nature of systematic reviews on remote monitoring for people living with long term physical health conditions. We will search several databases, including the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Epistemonikos, CINAHL, Embase, and MEDLINE, as well as conducting supplementary web searches. Studies will be included if they are systematic reviews focusing on adults with a long term physical health condition(s), using any form of remote monitoring as long as data from monitoring is being passed to a health care professional. Any comparator will be eligible for inclusion. We are interested in all outcomes relating to effectiveness, acceptability and implementation; for reviews of effectiveness, we will include only those containing comparative outcome evaluations, whilst for acceptability and implementation we will include reviews focusing on any study design. Included studies will be limited to those published in English and conducted in high-income countries. EPPI Reviewer 4 will be used for data extraction and the quality of included studies will be assessed using the AMSTAR 2 quality appraisal tool.

We will produce an interactive evidence and gap map to visually represent the results of data extraction and quality appraisal. The map will show key outcome domains as columns and key intervention domains as rows, with multiple layers to allow access to more detailed information on the studies containing information on particular combinations of outcomes and interventions. It will also be possible to filter the map e.g. to focus on specific populations. This evidence and gap map will form a resource for practitioners, allowing the identification of existing evidence to support the design and delivery of interventions. It will also allow researchers and funders to find gaps where there is a need for systematic reviews or further research.