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Health services research
Protocol
Integration of oral health into primary care: a scoping review protocol
  1. Elham Emami1,
  2. Hermina Harnagea2,
  3. Felix Girard3,
  4. Anne Charbonneau3,
  5. René Voyer3,
  6. Christophe Pierre Bedos4,
  7. Martin Chartier5,
  8. John Wootton6,
  9. Yves Couturier7
  1. 1Faculty of Dentistry, School of Public Health, Université de Montréal, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  2. 2École de santé publique, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
  3. 3Faculté de médecine dentaire, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
  4. 4Faculty of Dentistry, McGill University, McGill College, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  5. 5Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  6. 6Department of Family Medicine, Gatineau Integrated Center of Health and Social Services, Shawville, Québec, Canada
  7. 7École de travail social, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada
  1. Correspondence to Dr Elham Emami; elham.emami{at}umontreal.ca

Abstract

Introduction Integrated care has been introduced as a means of improving health outcomes and access to care, and reducing the cost of healthcare. Despite its importance, the integration of oral health into primary care is still an emerging healthcare pathway. This scoping review protocol has been developed and funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to provide an evidence-based synthesis on a primary oral healthcare approach and its effectiveness in improving oral health outcomes.

Methods and analysis The 6-stage framework developed by Levac et al underpins this scoping review. We will identify relevant existing theories, programmes and original research through a comprehensive and systematic search of electronic databases such as OVID (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane databases), NCBI (PubMed), EBSCOhost (CINAHL), ProQuest, Databases in Public Health, Databases of the National Institutes of Health (health management and health technology) and relevant organisational websites and other sources of grey literature. All types of studies from 1978 to May 2016 in the French and English languages will be included. Using the Rainbow conceptual model of integrative primary care, a qualitative descriptive approach and thematic analysis will be used to synthesise the literature. Implementing novel healthcare models necessitates identifying barriers, sharing knowledge and delivering information. The integration of oral healthcare into primary care is an approach that promotes breaking the boundaries separating oral healthcare professionals and primary care. It creates opportunities for the dental workforce to become more involved in community-based practice and to assume shared responsibility with healthcare professionals to address the unmet oral health needs of those experiencing vulnerability and marginalisation.

Ethics and dissemination The scoping study has received approval from the Université de Montréal's Institutional Review Board (#14–097-CERES-D). The findings will be disseminated through publications and presentations in provincial, national and international research symposiums and professional meetings.

  • PRIMARY CARE
  • PUBLIC HEALTH
  • ORAL MEDICINE

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-013807

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors have made significant intellectual contributions to this scoping review protocol. As a principal investigator, EE contributed largely to the conception of the review project and the development of the protocol. She provided guidance to the research team members and secured funds for the study. She will coordinate all aspects of the study and play an essential role in the analysis and interpretation of the results. HH conducted the preliminary literature review and collaborated in the protocol development and writing of the protocol. She designed the search strategy of the scoping review with an expert librarian at Université de Montréal. She will extract the data with EE and will contribute to the study analysis and interpretation with the collaboration of other team members. FG, YC, CPB and AC were involved in the protocol development and will contribute to data analysis and data interpretation. RV, MC and JW are the main stakeholders and will provide the needed feedback at various stages of the study. All authors revised the manuscript and approved the final version.

    • Funding This study is funded by a Knowledge Synthesis Grant from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (grant number: KRS-138220).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.