The outbreak of COVID19 soon became a public emergency and led to radical changes in healthcare management. The electronic medical record–assisted telephone follow-up (E-TFU) of cancer survivors (CS) to minimize hospital exposure was one of the prime developments.
The study under consideration aims to assess how breast cancer survivors (bCSs) perceived E-TFU. The method used included the 15-item survey that was emailed to bCSs who had been managed with E-TFU.
On receiving the response, the same was analyzed using the Likert-like scales and were correlated with the main characteristics of the bCS using Pearson’s test. A total of 343 bCS were studied during the research, which offered some great insights.
173 bCS with a median age of 59 years completed the survey between March 9 and June 2, 2020. A total of 80.3% bCS were satisfied by the idea of E-TFU, but contrary to this, only 43.8% would like to use the same in the future. The lower education level was correlated with a high level of anxiety related to COVID19 (P = .025). The pandemic phase II was correlated with satisfaction with E-TFU (P = .010).
E-TFU was the most important means of avoiding hospital contacts during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of bCSs in the survey were satisfied with the E-TFU procedure. Further studies are must to investigate the implementation of telemedicine even outside an emergency.
Ref: https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/OP.20.00643
