Barriers and facilitators of using tele-oncology in cancer care: a scoping review

Identifying barriers and facilitators of tele-oncology adoption is essential in enhancing healthcare stakeholders' decision-making on its leverage. This study aims to review the existing literature on barriers and facilitators to understand this topic better.

This scoping review was conducted based on the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR). The Web of Sciences, PubMed, and Scopus scientific databases were investigated to obtain articles. The data on barriers and facilitators were extracted from the included articles and finalized through the joint meeting. The aggregated barriers and facilitators were synthesized and categorized into themes using qualitative content analysis. This method categorized thematically similar barriers and facilitators into similar themes. We also used the descriptive statistics method of data (frequency and percentage), depicted data in table and figure formats, and synthesized the data narratively to show the findings on the included studies' characteristics.

Twelve articles from 685 records retrieved from the databases were employed in this study on this topic. Forty-eight barriers and 92 facilitators of tele-oncology use were obtained, including personal, technical, data management, managerial, and legal factors. The most critical barriers and facilitators were regarding the lack of technical requirements and usability characteristics of technologies in cancer care, respectively.

Considering the barriers and facilitators of using tele-oncology in cancer care through analyzing the existing studies can have a key role in optimizing the decision-making of various healthcare stakeholders, including policymakers, managers, and others involved in enhancing the patient care process. It can also be crucial in increasing the chances of technology acceptance in healthcare.