ABSTRACT
Goals: COVID 19 pandemy has compromised our health system and imposed a change in clinical managements of a lot of different pathologies (included neoplastic). As in a lot of part of the world, ambulatory visitswere interrupted in favour of phone calls. Our goals are: to analize the regular and multidisciplinary approach of follow up phone call visits after breast cancer;to highlight the improvement of the comunication between hospital doctors and territorial doctors;to estimate the emotional perception of the patients. Methods: A total of 267 women who experienced breast cancerwere enrolled during routinely follow up phone calls. Specific questionnaire about their experiences and their feelings about telemedicine in COVID 19 era were administered. We used SUTAQ questionnaire to highlight patients perception about telemedicine. The questionnaire consists of 22 items divided into different subscales: “Enhanced care” (EC), “Satisfaction” (ST), “Privacy and discomfort” (PD) and “Care personnel concerns” (CC) scales. Results: The median age of enrolled womenwas 67 years (63 women ≤55 yrs and 204 women ≥56 yrs);the majority of them (76.78%;n = 205) had a low educational level while 23.22% achieved a high school diploma or higher (n = 62). The oncologic treatment was chemotherapy, hormonal therapy or radiotherapy in 18%, 71% and 57% respectively. No significant differences were observed for age groups, with EC and ST showing moderate agreement and PD and CC approaching neutrality.Regarding educational level significant differences were observed. EC showed moderate positive perception (mean = 4.40) among patients with lower education level that was slightly lower among women with higher education level (mean = 4.14) with a significant difference (p = 0.034). ST had an opposite pattern: mean = 3.99 for low educational level and mean = 4.78 for high educational level, with a strong significant difference (p < 0.001). PD approached neutrality for low educational, while for higher educated women it the lower mean = 2,93 indicted a more positive perception (p = 0.007). CC showed moderate agreement with no statistical differences. No statistically significant evidences were observed in our sample according to oncologic treatment. Conclusion(s): Satisfaction about telemedicine was higher among patients with high educational level. Further analysis will be conduct in order to understand the oncologic and economic impact of telemedicine in term of recurrences rate and health costs. Conflict of Interest: No significant relationships.
ABSTRACT
Objectives The spread of COVID-19 pandemic changed the approach in the management of neoplasms. Telemedicine was one of the tools we experienced to maintain the continuity of care for the patients. Our goal is to evaluate the impact of telemedicine in patients management during follow up visits and its emotional impact. Methods We enrolled 79 women with gynecological cancer. SUTAQ questionnaire was used to highlight patients perception about telemedicine. The questionnaire consists of 22 items divided into different subscales: 'Enhanced care'(EC), 'Satisfaction' (ST), 'Privacy and Discomfort'(PD), 'Care personnel concerns' (CPC), ' Increased accessibility' (IA) and ' Telemedicine as a Substitution' (TMS) scales Results Enrolled women had a mean age of 55 years (35 women ≤ 55 years and 44 women ≥ 55 years). The majority of them (61.54%;n=48) achieved a high school diploma or higher while (n=30) had a low educational level (middle school or lower);87.3% (n=69) were employed and 70.89% (n=56) lived with their partner. Younger women had a better perception towards telemedicine for TMS (mean=3.68) compared to older ones (mean=3.05). The difference was statistically significant (p=0.025). The PD subscale was in favor of higher educated women (mean=2.57) compared to lower educated ones (mean=3.28;p=0.042). No significant differences were observed between intensive and non intensive treatment. EC, ST, IA, and PD reached good responsiveness towards telemedicine, irrespectively of care level. Conclusions Telemedicine has been a well-evaluated tool, not only among younger and higher educated women but even by women needing intensive care.