Abstract:

Orthopaedic care produces a large and growing demand for post-operative and rehabilitative follow-up, and digital tools are increasingly used to deliver this follow-up at a distance. What remains unclear is how well these tools are accepted, what they achieve and what stops them from being used in routine care. This preliminary scoping review maps the evidence on digital and connected health technologies for remote follow-up in orthopaedics along three dimensions: acceptance, effectiveness and implementation barriers. The review follows the Arksey and O’Malley framework and is reported using PRISMA-ScR. Scopus and PubMed were searched in June 2026, returning 972 records. After deduplication and title, abstract and full-text assessment, 235 primary studies were included; full-text retrieval is ongoing, so the findings represent an interim map. Most addressed knee osteoarthritis, arthroplasty and fractures, using telerehabilitation, mobile applications, wearable sensors or virtual consultations. Acceptance was generally high but tied closely to usability, feedback quality and ongoing support. Effectiveness was often comparable or non-inferior to in-person care, especially for telerehabilitation after surgery. Barriers clustered around digital literacy, workflow integration, reimbursement and data protection, and were described far more often than they were tested. The findings support a cautious, targeted scaling of digital follow-up, framed as a health information systems challenge as much as a clinical one, with implementation as the priority for future research.