The Role of Health Kiosks: Scoping Review

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Health Informatics
• Public Health Technology

Background:

• Health kiosks are public access computing devices providing health services.
• Despite digital advancements, kiosk market growth is predicted.
• Kiosks offer health information, clinical measurements, and teleconsultation access.

Purpose of the Study:

• To clarify the current and future roles of health kiosks.
• Investigate kiosk settings, roles, and clinical domains.
• Assess reported usability evaluations and identify deployment barriers and facilitators.

Main Methods:

• Scoping review of Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science (Jan 2009-June 2020).
• Included primary studies, systematic reviews, and news articles.
• Abstracted data on settings, purposes, health domains, integration, and usability.

Main Results:

• 141 articles reviewed; 95% were primary studies.
• Kiosks prevalent in secondary (47%), community (23.9%), and primary care (17.9%).
• Key roles: health information (35.1%), measurements (20.9%), screening (12.7%), telehealth (8.2%).
• Integrated into clinical pathways in 70.1% of studies.
• Usability evaluations reported in 20.1% of papers.

Conclusions:

• Health kiosks are vital for healthcare access, particularly for digitally excluded populations.
• Identified research gaps include usability evaluation methods and teleconsultation training needs.
• Kiosks facilitate clinical measurements and web-based health services.