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INTRODUCTION: While studies have documented delays in breast cancer (BC) care during the COVID-19 pandemic due to healthcare restrictions, there have been no studies on the experiences, and, particularly, the challenges with providing care faced by breast surgeons during this unprecedented time. This paper aims to understand the perspectives of breast surgeons regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on BC care. METHODS: We used purposeful and snowball sampling to identify breast surgeons in Ontario, Canada. One-on-one qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted exploring the impact of the pandemic on BC treatment, psychosocial well-being of patients and providers, and the future state of BC care. Audio-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using Thematic Analysis. RESULTS: A total of 10 breast surgeons (5 community and 5 academic) were interviewed. Breast surgeons reported that the pandemic led to increased multidisciplinary collaboration and innovations in delivery of BC surgery (e.g., increased use of regional anesthesia). Multiple surgeons identified that the pandemic created disparities in BC care based geographic location and that existing disparities in care based on ethnicity or marginalization were exacerbated. Last, surgeons identified that virtual care improved, but also created some challenges to how BC care was delivered, with many hoping for this to be continued after the pandemic was over. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, breast surgeons identified unique challenges and solutions to BC care delivery during the pandemic. Concerns regarding disparities in care based on geographic location and marginalized patients require further study to improve future BC care.
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Rapid and efficient communication regarding quickly evolving medical information was paramount for healthcare providers and patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last several years, social media platforms such as Twitter have emerged as important tools for health promotion, virtual learning among healthcare providers, and patient support. We conducted a qualitative thematic content analysis on tweets using the hashtags #BreastSurgery, #BreastCancer, #BreastOncology, #Pandemic, and #COVID19. Advocacy organizations were the most frequent authors of tweets captured in this dataset, and most tweets came from the United States of America (64%). Seventy-three codes were generated from the data, and, through iterative, inductive analysis, three major themes were developed: patient hesitancy and vulnerability, increased efforts in knowledge sharing, and evolving best practices. We found that Twitter was an effective way to share evolving best practices, education, and collective experiences among key stakeholders. As Twitter is increasingly used as a tool for health promotion and knowledge translation, a better understanding of how key stakeholders engage with healthcare-related topics on the platform can help optimize the use of this powerful tool.
