Virtual Care for Indigenous Populations in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand: Protocol for a Scoping Review (Preprint)

Abstract

<sec> <title>BACKGROUND</title> <p>Indigenous people in Canada (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) experience an increased burden of chronic disease compared to non-Indigenous people. Lack of necessary services and culturally relevant care in rural and remote locations for Indigenous people contribute to this burden. Several First Nations communities have implemented systems, such as virtual care, to improve chronic disease management. Virtual care has extended beyond videoconferencing to include more advanced technologies, such as remote biometric monitoring devices. However, given the historical and ongoing Western intrusion into Indigenous day-to-day life, such technologies may seem more invasive and thus require additional research into their acceptability and utility within Indigenous populations.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>OBJECTIVE</title> <p>The objective of this paper is to present the protocol for a scoping review which aims to map existing evidence. Our guiding research question is: What are the characteristics of virtual care use by Indigenous adult populations in Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand? -- with subquestions related to the technology used, the health conditions and nature of the virtual care, cultural safety, and the key concepts for effective use.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>METHODS</title> <p>This scoping review protocol is informed by the methodology described by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) and is supplemented by the frameworks proposed by Arksey and O’Malley and Levac, Colquhoun and O’Brien. A search for published and grey literature, written in English, and published between 2000 and present will be completed utilizing electronic databases and search engines, including MEDLINE, CINAHL, Indigenous Peoples of North America, Indigenous Studies Portal, Informit, Native Health Database, Open Grey, and Google. Search results will be uploaded to the review software, Covidence, for title and abstract screening before full-text screening begins. This process will be repeated for grey literature. Upon completion, a data abstraction tool will organize relevant information into categorical formation.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>RESULTS</title> <p>As of June 2020, the search strategy has been confirmed, and we are beginning to review the published and grey literature.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>CONCLUSIONS</title> <p>Previous reviews have addressed virtual care within Indigenous communities. However, new virtual care technologies have since emerged; subsequently, additional literature has been published. Mapping and synthesizing this literature will inform new directions for research and discussion.</p> </sec>