Tele-oncology in cancer care during COVID-19 pandemic-expanding role in the developing world

COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the entire health care system to a great extent and led to the development and utilization of alternative approaches. Tele-oncology holds great potential to deliver cancer care. With the use of tele-oncology, physical distancing can be maintained. This will help the cancer patients as well as the oncologist and other supporting staff from getting exposed to the virus. However, there are many challenges for starting tele-oncology especially in resource limited settings. We hereby discuss tele-oncology its applications, methods available, tools, set up and infrastructure, benefits of tele-oncology and various patient, physician and resource-related factors in detail, especially in the setting of low- A nd middle-income countries.

Solving the toxicology mystery: An educational program focused on team-based problem-solving

Service or Program: To increase skills needed in treating overdoses, clinical faculty designed a toxicology educational program as part of a didactic acute care course at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. The program consisted of main toxicology concept puzzles, which once solved, released clinical clues for a patient case. This hands-on escape room type program allowed teams of third year pharmacy students the opportunity to collect and combine clinical clues to identify a general toxidrome, determine the substance taken and use resources to create a therapeutic plan within a designated time frame. The case included a substance not taught within toxicology lectures, requiring students to apply known concepts to a novel topic and quickly utilize resources to support their learning. Justification/Documentation: Historically, toxicology is taught in lecture format making the students' application and clinical decision making skills difficult to assess. All teams completing this program successfully identified the toxic substance and created an appropriate therapeutic plan despite having no formal education on this particular substance. Adaptability: While this program was developed for third year pharmacy students in a didactic setting, it has also been used in the experiential setting with students and pharmacy residents. An emergency medicine pharmacist originally developed this as an in person activity with physical puzzles including various padlocks, paper clues and invisible ink. In the setting of COVID-19, the activity was adapted to an online team puzzle using Google Forms and the Zoom platform. This online adaptability allows its continued use with pharmacy learners as well as interdisciplinary plans to include medical students and residents on emergency medicine rotations. Significance: Pharmacists play an integral role in the care of overdosed patients. This unique educational program provides learners the opportunity to apply the skills needed for this role in a hands-on active learning format applicable for both didactic and clinical settings.