Exploring the Heath Equity Impact of Current Digital Health Design Practices: A Protocol for a Scoping Review (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The field of digital health has grown rapidly in part due to the potential to reduce heath inequities. However, such potential has not always been realized. The design approaches used in digital health are one of the known aspects to have an impact on health equity. OBJECTIVE The aim of this scoping review will be to understand how design approaches in digital health have an impact on health equity. METHODS A scoping review of studies that describe how design practices for digital health have an impact on health equity will be carried out. The scoping review will follow the methodology laid out by Arksey and O’Malley, the Joanna Briggs Institute, and the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews checklist. The PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and AMC Library will be searched for peer-reviewed papers. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses and Global Index Medicus databases will be searched for gray literature. The results will be screened against the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Subsequently, the data extracted from the included studies will be analyzed. RESULTS A twofold approach will be used to present the results. First, we will present a numerical overview of the amount, kind, and key themes of the studies. Second, we will write a narrative synthesis from the evidence extracted. CONCLUSIONS While there has been much discussion of the importance of design for lowering barriers to digital health participation, the evidence base demonstrating its impacts on health equity is less obvious. We hope our findings will contribute to better understanding the impact that design in digital health has on health equity and that these findings will translate into action that leads to stronger, more equitable healthcare systems.