Background: Technologies have been extensively implemented in the fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). While several reviews were conducted regarding technologies used during COVID-19, they were limited either by focusing on a certain technology or feature, or by technologies that were proposed rather than implemented. Objective: This review aims to provide an overview of technologies implemented during the first wave of COVID-19 as reported in the literature. Methods: The authors conducted a scoping review following the guidelines of PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Studies were retrieved through searching 8 electronic databases and conducting backward and forward reference list checking. The search terms were chosen based on the target intervention (i.e., technologies) and the target disease (i.e., COVID-19). We included English publications that focused on technologies or digital tools implemented during COVID-19 to provide health-related services regardless of target health conditions, users of technologies, and settings. Two reviewers independently assessed the eligibility of studies and extracted data from the included articles. We then used a narrative approach to synthesize the extracted data. Results: Of 7,374 retrieved studies, 126 were deemed eligible. Telemedicine was the most common type of technologies (85%) implemented in the first wave of COVID-19. The most common mode of telemedicine was synchronous (93.5%). The most common purpose of the technologies was providing consultation (59.5%), followed by following up with patients (35.7%) and monitoring their health status (17.4%). Zoom (17.5%) and WhatsApp (9.5%) were the most common social media and video-conferencing platforms. Both healthcare professionals and health consumers were the most common target users (81.7%). The health condition most frequently targeted by the implemented technologies was COVID-19 (30.2%), followed by any physical health conditions (16.7%) and mental health conditions (10.3%). Technologies were web-based in 84.1% of the included studies. Technologies in the included studies could be used through 11 venues. The most common venue of technologies was mobile applications (68.3%), followed by desktop applications (57.9%), telephone calls (38.9%), and websites (35.7%). Conclusions: Technologies played a crucial role in mitigating the COVID-19 challenges. Our review did not find other technologies that were implemented during the first wave of COVID-19 (e.g., contact-tracing apps, drones, blockchain). Further, technologies in this review were used for other purposes (e.g., drugs and vaccines discovery, social distancing, and immunity passport). Future research on studies about such technologies and purposes is recommended. Further reviews are required to investigate technologies implemented in the following waves of COVID-19.
