Internet of Medical Things for Wound Surveillance in Nursing Practice: A Scoping Review

This is a scoping review that will map the available evidence on the use of Internet of Medical Things technologies for wound surveillance in nursing practice. Internet of Medical Things technologies refer to smart, connected, sensor-based, wireless or remote monitoring devices and platforms that can collect, transmit or support interpretation of health-related data. In wound care, these may include smart dressings, smart bandages, biosensors, wearable sensors, wireless wound sensors, NFC-enabled systems, connected wound assessment tools and remote wound monitoring platforms. The purpose of this review is to identify what IoMT technologies have been used for wound monitoring or surveillance, describe the wound types and settings in which they have been applied, and map the wound-related parameters they monitor. These parameters may include pH, temperature, pressure, strain, moisture, exudate, oxygenation, inflammatory markers and other biochemical indicators of wound status. The review will also explore how these technologies may support nursing and wound-care practice, including wound assessment, dressing review, documentation, remote follow-up, patient education, escalation of abnormal findings and clinical decision-making. This review will follow a scoping review design informed by Joanna Briggs Institute guidance and will be reported using the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews. Searches will be conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library and Embase. Eligible studies will include peer-reviewed primary research published from 2015 onward that reports the development, testing, implementation or evaluation of smart, connected, sensor-based, wireless or remote technologies used for wound monitoring, assessment, detection, tracking or surveillance. The expected outcome of this project is a structured evidence map of IoMT technologies for wound surveillance. The review is expected to clarify the main types of technologies currently reported in the literature, the surveillance functions they perform, the wound types they target and the extent to which their relevance to nursing practice has been described. The findings may help identify gaps in clinical validation, usability testing, implementation research and integration of IoMT technologies into routine wound-care workflows.