"What Are the Applications for Remote Rehabilitation Management in Cystic Fibrosis?": A Scoping Review Protocol.

BACKGROUND

Telemedicine is an effective, widely used strategy in the field of cystic fibrosis management. The objective of this scoping review is to summarize and analyze the scientific literature with the special focus on the tools and the strategies used in patients with a chronic disease, such as cystic fibrosis.

METHODS

This scoping review will be performed in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology. In this context, the planned scoping review is a research synthesis that will map the literature on the applications of telemedicine and telemonitoring to the management of cystic fibrosis, with the aim to identify key concepts in the research and work to be conducted that may impact clinical practice. Studies will be included if they meet the following population, concept, and context criteria: all patients with cystic fibrosis receiving treatment with the tools of telemedicine and telemonitoring. No study design, publication type, or data restrictions will be applied. MEDLINE, Scopus, CINHAL, Pedro, Embase, Web of Science, ACM Digital Library, Health Technology Assessment Database (HTA), and Cochrane Central will be searched up to September 2022.

DISCUSSION

To the best of our knowledge, this will be the first scoping review to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic. The results could add meaningful information for future research and, especially, for clinical practice, when implementing telerehabilitation in cystic fibrosis treatment. Furthermore, we expect that our work may identify possible knowledge gaps on the topic. The results of this research will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and will be presented at relevant international scientific events, such as in congress or meetings.