Understanding digital navigators in health care: a scoping review protocol

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Health Informatics
• Patient Support

Background:

• Digital navigators assist patients and clinicians with digital health technologies.
• This role, emerging in 2015, shows promise but requires more evidence for broader implementation.
• Formalizing and scaling digital navigator roles is crucial for diverse clinical settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To comprehensively understand the role of digital navigators in healthcare.
• To synthesize existing literature on digital navigators and patient-facing health technologies.
• To identify gaps and inform the formalization and scaling of digital navigator programs.

Main Methods:

• Scoping review adhering to JBI methodology.
• Comprehensive search of academic and gray literature (MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Embase, Web of Science, Google).
• Inclusion of English-language literature from any country, with data extraction by two independent reviewers.

Main Results:

• (Results will be presented in the final report)
• (Data synthesis and characterization using multiple frameworks)
• (PRISMA flow diagram will illustrate the review process)

Conclusions:

• (Conclusions will be drawn from synthesized findings)
• (Recommendations for formalizing and scaling digital navigator roles)
• (Future research directions will be outlined)