The Negative Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Oncology Care at an Academic Cancer Referral Center

Methods Patient Cohort Under a protocol approved by the University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center Institutional Review Board, a search of all appointment data from patients with cancer in the in the Seidman Cancer Center was performed. For each of the 4 groups of appointment types, rates of cancellation (cancellation count divided by appointment count) were stratified by age group (0-39 years, 40-64 years, 65 years or older),10 sex (male or female), and race (White, Black, or other) on a monthly basis. Descriptive statistics were used to assess any association of cancellation rate between 2019 and 2020 for both overall data, and stratified by age group, sex, and race for each appointment type respectively, where the ÷2 test of independence was used for comparison. The trend comparison of appointment rates was also examined by trend plot both for overall data and stratified by age group, sex, and race for each appointment type respectively.

Effects of COVID-19 on Benign Gynecologic Practice

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has altered health care. The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in gynecology practice patterns in response to the pandemic. Materials and Methods: A survey was created and distributed to members of the American Association of Gynecologist Laparoscopists, using REDCap [Research Electronic Data Capture] from July 2020 to August 2020. The responses of 112 gynecologists representing all U.S. regions and several other countries were analyzed. Results: In response to the pandemic, almost all providers' institutions took action to increase social-distancing efforts (99.1%) and to encourage use of personal protective equipment (95.5%). Furthermore, 75.5% of institutions cancelled elective surgeries and 80% started utilizing telemedicine. Practice volume dropped by 27% among respondents, and 64% felt that patients were delaying needed care. The gynecologic diagnosis felt to be most impacted by COVID-19 secondary to delays in care was pelvic pain. The pandemic accelerated implementation of telemedicine, and, interestingly, 65% of providers reported that they would continue to use telemedicine 25% of the time going forward. Conclusions: COVID-19 has reshaped clinical and surgical practices in benign gynecology. It has led physicians to begin utilizing telemedicine for gynecologic care more readily, and many will continue to utilize this method of health care even when the pandemic ends. (J GYNECOL SURG 38:115) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Gynecologic Surgery is the property of Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Adjusting to the new reality: Evaluation of early practice pattern adaptations to the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: We aim to define national practice patterns to assess current clinical practice, anticipated delays and areas of concern that potentially could lead to deviations from the normal standard of care. METHODS: Anonymous surveys were emailed to members of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO). The spread of COVID-19 and its impact on gynecologic oncology care in terms of alterations to normal treatment patterns and anticipated challenges were assessed. The Wilcoxon rank sum test was performed to determine risk factors for COVID-19 infection. RESULTS: We analyzed the responses of 331 gynecologic oncology providers. COVID-19 is present in 99.1% of surveyed communities with 99.7% reporting mitigation efforts in effect. The infection rate differs significantly between regions (p≪0.001) with the Northeast reporting the highest number of COVID-19 cases. Practice volume has dropped by 61.6% since the start of the pandemic with most cancellations being provider initiated. A majority of responders (52.8%) believed that ovarian cancer will be the most affected cancer by COVID-19. >94% of responders are proceeding with gynecologic cancer surgeries with exception of grade 1, endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma (36.3%). Surgical backlog (58.6%), delayed cancer diagnosis (43.2%) and re-establishing normal care with delayed patient (37.8%) were identified as the top 3 challenges after COVID-19 has abated. CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 is widespread and has radically altered normal practice patterns. Despite COVID-19 related concerns, most gynecologic oncology care is proceeding. However, the steep decline in clinical volume shows there is a large group of patients who are not being diagnosed or are deferring care.