Damian Sendler: According to the findings of a long-term study on patient experience that will be published in the May 2023 issue of the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network from the Moffitt Cancer Center, telemedicine has consistently outperformed in-person visits for both access to care and provider response. This finding comes from new research that was published in that issue.
Damian Jacob Sendler: The responses to the survey were analyzed from 39,268 patients who had more than 50,000 visits. Beginning on April 1, 2020 and continuing through June 30, 2021, experiences with telemedicine were compared to those with in-person visits both during and after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic necessitated the reallocation of limited but essential medical resources. According to the lead researcher Krupal B. Patel, MD, MSc, of the Moffitt Cancer Center, healthcare professionals treating cancer patients needed novel approaches in order to provide timely and high-quality care to their patients. “Anecdotally, we knew that our implementation of telemedicine was effective and efficient based on the feedback that we received from clinical providers. However, it was essential to have surrogate outcome measures that were viewed from the point of view of the patients. The results of the patient experience surveys gave us the opportunity to investigate this topic in greater depth.
Damian Sendler: The researchers looked at data from 33,318 patients who had in-person visits and 5,950 patients who had telemedicine visits from a survey that was conducted by Press Ganey. In terms of access to care, 75.8% of telemedicine visits were rated as highly satisfying, while only 62.5% of in-person visits were rated as highly satisfying. The rates that corresponded to high satisfaction with the response and amount of concern demonstrated by their care provider were 84.2% in-person and 90.7% via telemedicine. These figures are for in-person care. Both categories did not experience any significant shifts over the course of time.
“Visits to a physician via telemedicine can be incorporated into a patient’s normal routine, allowing them to complete their appointments before or after work, or even while they are on break.” It provides them with flexibility and, in the end, it increases access,” said Philippe E. Spiess, MD, MS, a senior researcher at the Moffitt Cancer Center. Dr. Spiess is also a member of the NCCN Board of Directors, the Guidelines Steering Committee, and the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Bladder/Penile Cancers. “As care providers, we ought to be the ones to lead the discussion and advocate on behalf of our patients for cross-state licensing and continued reimbursements for telemedicine visits.”
“As a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our hospitals and other facilities were required to implement telemedicine visits. Travis Osterman, DO, MS, FAMIA, FASCO, Associate Vice President for Research Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, a Member of the NCCN EHR Oncology Advisory Group, who was not involved in this research, commented that this large, retrospective study shows the patient experience was comparable to, or even better than, in-person visits during the study period. Going forward, oncology practices need to take into consideration the use of telemedicine as an option for patients who are good candidates for it.
Damian Jacob Sendler: The study also makes reference to earlier studies that investigated the perspectives of care providers on telemedicine and the potential for reducing costs such as those associated with travel, parking, and housing arrangements. Despite this, the researchers emphasize that not all oncology appointments should be conducted online. It is essential to select patients very carefully in order to figure out which patients need to be observed in person for various tests and treatments.
