Characteristics of Electronic Informed Consent Platforms for Consenting Patients to Research Studies: A Scoping Review

Characteristics of Electronic Informed Consent Platforms for Consenting Patients to Research Studies: A Scoping Review
Jennifer Guarino, Irena Parvanova, Joseph Finkelstein
Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 6 June 2022; 290 pp 777-781
Abstract
Informed consent process assures that research study participants are properly informed about the study prior to their consent. Due to the increasing significance of electronic informed consent (eIC) platforms, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted a scoping review of eIC systems to address the following characteristics: 1) technological features of current eIC platforms, 2) eIC platforms usability and efficacy, and 3) areas for future eIC research. We performed a literature search using publicly available PubMed repository, where we included studies discussing an eIC platform or multimedia educational module given to patients prior to signing a consent form. In addition, we tracked first author, year of publication, sample size, study location, eIC procedure, methodology, and eIC’s comparison to paper consent. Our results showed that with a few noted exceptions, electronic consent improves patient usability, satisfaction, knowledge, and trust scores when compared to traditional paper consent.