Digital approaches to pre-consultation history taking in healthcare settings: a scoping review protocol

This project is a scoping review that aims to systematically map and synthesise the existing literature on digital approaches used to support pre-consultation history taking in healthcare settings. Increasingly, traditionally paper-based intake and history-taking processes are being replaced or supplemented by digital tools completed prior to a clinical encounter. These tools include electronic intake forms, patient portals, digital questionnaires, electronic health record (EHR)–integrated pre-visit systems, automated triage platforms, and AI-enabled history-taking technologies. While these innovations have shown potential to improve workflow efficiency, data completeness, patient–clinician communication, and service accessibility, the evidence base remains fragmented across healthcare settings, technologies, and evaluation approaches. To date, no comprehensive synthesis has focused specifically on digital tools deployed before clinical consultations to collect, generate, structure, or synthesise patient-specific information intended to inform the upcoming encounter. Existing reviews tend to focus on broader digital health interventions, in-consultation decision support systems, or post-consultation monitoring. As a result, clinicians, health system leaders, and policymakers lack a consolidated overview of how pre-consultation digital tools are implemented, evaluated, and reported across different clinical contexts. This scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology for scoping reviews and reported using PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A comprehensive search strategy will be applied across multiple bibliographic databases (PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, IEEE Xplore, and DBLP). Peer-reviewed empirical studies published in English from 2016 onwards will be included. Studies must examine digital tools used prior to a scheduled or unscheduled clinical encounter and report at least one evaluative component, such as workflow efficiency, data quality, utilisation, patient- or clinician-reported outcomes, or implementation-related measures. Data will be extracted using a structured charting framework capturing study characteristics, healthcare setting, population, type and level of digital tool integration, implementation characteristics, evaluation frameworks, outcome measures, comparative elements (if present), and reported effectiveness indicators. The analysis will use descriptive statistics and narrative synthesis to map the extent, nature, and characteristics of the evidence. Findings will be stratified, where feasible, by clinical setting, healthcare specialty, and type of digital tool to account for anticipated heterogeneity. The expected outcomes of this project are: A structured classification of digital tools used for pre-consultation history taking. A comprehensive mapping of reported implementation contexts and evaluation approaches. A synthesis of outcome measures and indicators used to assess these tools. Identification of evidence gaps, under-represented settings or populations, and inconsistencies in evaluation frameworks. By consolidating and mapping the existing evidence, this review will provide a foundation for future implementation research, digital health policy development, and evidence-informed service design. It will clarify how digital pre-consultation tools are currently being used and evaluated across healthcare systems and identify priorities for future research and practice.