The Use of Continuous Temperature Data from Wearable Devices for Fever or Infection Management in Acute Hospital Settings: A Scoping Review Protocol

<b>Introduction<br/></b>Despite the increasing interest in wearable devices for monitoring body temperature in acute hospital settings, their integration into routine clinical workflows remains limited. There is a growing need to map the existing evidence on the use of temperature data generated by wearable devices to enhance our understanding of how these data are monitored, presented, and utilised in clinical practice. <br/><br/><b>Methods and analysis<br/></b>A scoping review of relevant literature from January 2013 to February 2025 will be conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review methodology. A search of Medline, Embase, Web of Science, CINAHL, and IEEE Xplore Databases will be undertaken using the PCC (Population, Concept, Context) framework to identify studies that use wearable devices to monitor patients' body temperature in acute hospital settings to support the management of fever or infections. A pilot search has been conducted to identify key search terms and specific types of wearable devices followed by analysis of retrieved literature. We will use a two-step screening process to identify eligible articles, starting with title/abstract screening, followed by full-text screening. A hand search of the reference lists and citation lists of eligible articles and identified reviews will be conducted for additional publications that meet the inclusion criteria. Primary studies published in English and Chinese will be included regardless of their design and type of publication. Information on the characteristics of wearable devices, clinical contexts of device usage, strategies of presenting and analysing temperature data, and their integration into clinical workflows will be extracted. In the article presenting the results of the scoping review, we will provide a descriptive synthesis of the findings, supported by visual representations such as charts, tables, and images to describe the current evidence base. <br/><br/><b>Ethics and dissemination<br/></b>As this is a scoping review, ethical approval is not required. The results will be presented in a peer-reviewed journal article and at healthcare or medical informatics conferences. The findings will provide insights into the interpretation of temperature data generated by wearable devices to support clinical decision-making and inform strategies to facilitate their incorporation into clinical practice.<br/><br/><b>Registration</b> This scoping review protocol is registered on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/v6sp8).<br/>