Telemedicine as an Acceptable Model of Care in Advanced stage Cancer Patients in the Era of Coronavirus Disease 2019 - An Observational Study in a Tertiary Care Centre.
Indian J Palliat Care
; 27(2): 306-312, 2021.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1498298
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
The availability of routine care for patients with cancer during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become challenging, and the use of telemedicine can be promising in this area. The objective of the study is to evaluate the feasibility of telemedicine-based palliative interventions in cancer patients. MATERIALS ANDMETHODS:
This retrospective study was conducted in a tertiary care centre with 547 follow-up patients who used palliative medicine teleconsultation services. The following data were retrieved from the records Patient's reason for the call, the main barriers to a hospital visit, the assistance given to them by the physician on the call and the patients' satisfaction with the service on a 4-point scale. The data were analysed using percentages for categorical variables and mean/standard deviation for quantitative variables.RESULTS:
Out of the 547 patients, 462 (84.46%) utilised voice calling service, and the major reason for not visiting the hospital were cited to be fear of contracting COVID-19 (37.3%), inability to attend due to health constraints (7.13%) and issues with transportation (48.8%). The majority of the calls (63.62%) calls were regarding uncontrolled symptoms of the primary diseases. A total of 402 (73.49%) patients were very satisfied, and a total of 399 (72.94%) decided to continue to use this medium in the future as well.CONCLUSION:
Telemedicine is a good modality for the assessment of chronic pain and providing symptomatic supportive care in patients with cancer in the COIVD-19 pandemic.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Journal:
Indian J Palliat Care
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
IJPC_45_21
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