Introduction:
There is growing concern that the increasing adoption of digital health technologies (DHTs) may constrain or detract from the delivery of compassionate, patient-centered care. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the use of DHTs, with primary care (PC) experiencing a significant rise in their use. As screen-mediated interactions become more common, questions have emerged about how these technologies affect the quality of human connection and interactions during clinical encounters. This is particularly important for delivering compassionate care, which is linked to positive outcomes, including better treatment adherence, trust in providers, reduced anxiety and overall quality of life. Given the rise in DHT-mediated care, primary care providers (PCPs) must be equipped to use these tools while maintaining compassion. This matters as PCPs play a central role in building therapeutic relationships, coordinating care, and supporting patients longitudinally. Clinical educators are key to helping learners develop both technical and relational competencies needed to provide compassionate care. Although some reviews addressed compassionate care in other settings little is known about how this is enacted in PC, where continuity and longitudinal relationships are central. Moreover, evidence supports the benefits of compassion training, however, it is unclear how this is being enacted in training and clinical practice when DHTs are involved. This review aims to address these gaps by examining this important area in PC.

Methods:
We are conducting a scoping review on training and clinical practice of compassionate care with DHTs using Arksey and O’Malley’s framework. The primary research question is: What is known about how electronic health records and virtual care influence the delivery of compassionate care in the training and clinical practice of medical trainees, family physicians, and nurse practitioners in PC? We developed a search strategy with an information librarian tailored to broad databases. These were chosen to capture insights across healthcare and education. We used the population-concept-context framework to scope the review and the eligibility criteria. We will include peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2025 to capture contemporary evidence, reflecting recent developments and practices in DHTs and medical education curricula. Two reviewers will independently screen titles, abstracts, and full texts using Covidence. A pilot test of 30 articles will ensure 80% agreement. Discrepancies will be resolved with the Principal Investigator. Reported outcomes (e.g., provider or patient impacts), strategies, best practices or lessons learned will also be captured. For studies incorporating educational interventions, we will categorize and quantify the different types of teaching and training approaches used. The frequency of each educational intervention will be reported to allow us to understand the common pedagogical strategies used. Findings will be reported according to PRISMA-ScR guidelines.

Conclusion:
This work in progress will synthesize evidence on how PCPs teach to and practice compassionate care delivery in the DHT sphere. In doing so, we will map current approaches, identify gaps, and inform future research and practices that support compassionate care delivery in digitally-mediated PC settings.

Keywords: Technology, education.