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. 2025 May 27;20(5):e0322100.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0322100. eCollection 2025.

Protocol for an umbrella review of systematic reviews evaluating the efficacy of digital health solutions in supporting adult cancer survivorship care

Danielle Keane  1 , Jean-Paul Calbimonte  2   3 , Ewa Pawłowska  4   3 , Angelos P Kassianos  5 , Joan C Medina  6 , João Gregório  7 , Maria Serra-Blasco  8   9 , Aleksandar Celebic  10 , Antonio Di Meglio  11 , Babak Asadi-Azarbaijani  12 , Claire Foster  13 , Claire L Donohoe  14 , Allini Mafra  15   16 , Claudine Backes  15   16 , Cristian Ochoa-Arnedo  9   17   18 , Derya Gezer  19 , Gamze Bozkul  19 , Emel Taşvuran Horata  20 , Esra Özkan  21 , Gillian Prue  22 , Gökçe İşcan  23 , Gül Dural  24 , Gülcan Bahçecioğlu  24 , Filiz Ersöğütçü  24 , Guna Bērziņa  25 , Hicran Bektas  26 , Ines- Vaz-Luis  10   27 , Izidor Mlakar  28 , João Rocha-Gomes  29 , Mairead O'Connor  30 , Maria Inês Clara  31 , Maria Karekla  32 , Marte Hoff Hagen  33 , Merve Saniye İmançer  34 , Oğulcan Çöme  34 , Vildan Mevsim  34 , Nilay Aksoy  35 , Rui Miguel Martins  36 , Sıdıka Ece Yokuş  37 , Sule Biyik Bayram  38 , Aysun Akçakaya Can  38 , Tânia Brandão  39 , Mohamad M Saab  1 , Nuray Bayar Muluk  40 , Zeynep Yıldırım  41 , Ioana R Podina  42 , Songül Karadağ  43 , Sevilay Erden  43 , Remziye Semerci  44 , Aydanur Aydin  45 , Maximos Frountzas  46 , Şengül Üzen Cura  47 , Aydın Ruveyde  48 , Antonios Billis  49 , Jean Calleja-Agius  50 , Katarina Vojvodic  51 , Poonam Jaswal  1 , Eda Sahin  52 , Ayşegül Ilgaz  53 , Sophie Pilleron  54 , Josephine Hegarty  1   55
Affiliations

Protocol for an umbrella review of systematic reviews evaluating the efficacy of digital health solutions in supporting adult cancer survivorship care

Danielle Keane et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Introduction: The growing number of people living with, through and beyond cancer poses a new challenge for sustainable survivorship care solutions. Digital health solutions which incorporate various information and communication technologies are reshaping healthcare; offering huge potential to facilitate health promotion, support healthcare efficiencies, improve access to healthcare and positively impact health outcomes. Digital health solutions include websites and mobile applications, health information technologies, telehealth solutions, wearable devices, AI-supported chatbots and other technologically assisted provision of health information, communication and services. The breadth and scope of digital health solutions necessitate a synthesis of evidence on their use in supportive care in cancer. This umbrella review will identify, synthesise, and compare systematic reviews which have evaluated the efficacy or effectiveness of digital solutions for adult cancer survivorship care with a particular focus on surveillance and management of physical effects, psychosocial effects, new cancer/ recurring cancers and supporting health promotion and disease prevention.

Methods and analysis: An umbrella review of published systematic reviews will be undertaken to explore the types of digital health solutions used, their efficacy or effectiveness as a form of supportive care, and the barriers and enablers associated with their implementation. The umbrella review will be reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Overviews of Reviews (PRIOR) checklist. A search will be conducted across key databases. Records will be assessed independently by two review authors for eligibility against predefined criteria and will undergo two stage title, abstract and full text screening. All systematic reviews that meet the inclusion criteria will be assessed for quality using the AMSTAR 2 checklist with quality assessment and data extraction by two reviewers. The degree of publication overlap of primary studies across the included reviews will also be calculated and a mapping of the evidence will also be presented.

Ethics and dissemination: As this research proposes using systematic reviews that are already published, ethical approval is not required. Results from this umbrella review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal where any significant deviations from the protocol will be justified.

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Conflict of interest statement

have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests:This work has been completed as part of a European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST Association) project titled: CA21152 Implementation Network Europe for Cancer Survivorship Care (INE-CSC). The views expressed in this paper are of the authors of the paper and not the EU Commission.

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