Technologies for Interoperable Internet of Medical Things Platforms to Manage Medical Emergencies in Home and Prehospital Care: Protocol for a Scoping Review

Background: Population growth and aging have highlighted the need for more effective home and prehospital care. Interconnected medical devices and applications, which comprise an infrastructure referred to as the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), have enabled remote patient monitoring and can be important tools to cope with these demographic changes. However, developing IoMT platforms requires profound knowledge of clinical needs and challenges related to interoperability and how these can be managed with suitable technologies. Objective: The purpose of this scoping review is to summarize the best practices and technologies to overcome interoperability concerns in IoMT platform development for medical emergencies in home and prehospital care. Methods: This scoping review will be conducted in accordance with Arksey and O'Malley's 5-stage framework and adhere to the PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses Protocols) guidelines. Only peer-reviewed articles published in English will be considered. The databases/web search engines that will be used are IEEE Xplore, PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, National Center for Biotechnology Information, SAGE Journals, and ScienceDirect. The search process for relevant literature will be divided into 4 different steps. This will ensure that a suitable approach is followed in terms of search terms, limitations, and eligibility criteria. Relevant articles that meet the inclusion criteria will be screened in 2 stages: abstract and title screening and full-text screening. To reduce selection bias, the screening process will be performed by 2 reviewers. Results: The results of the preliminary search indicate that there is sufficient literature to form a good foundation for the scoping review. The search was performed in April 2022, and a total of 4579 articles were found. The main clinical focus is the prevention and management of falls, but other medical emergencies, such as heart disease and stroke, are also considered. Preliminary results show that little attention has been given to real-time IoMT platforms that can be deployed in real-world care settings. The final results are expected to be presented in a scoping review in 2023 and will be disseminated through scientific conference presentations, oral presentations, and publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Conclusions: This scoping review will provide insights and recommendations regarding how interoperable real-time IoMT platforms can be developed to handle medical emergencies in home and prehospital care. The findings of this research could be used by researchers, clinicians, and implementation teams to facilitate future development and interdisciplinary discussions.