Telehealth has been one of the biggest american systems in the welfare and healthcare of America. On the other side it is very shocking that such a big unit has been actively participating in cancer treatment. COVID pandemic gave it a chance to connect with the Cancer care. In 2018, the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Pittsburgh Healthcare System expanded the use of telehealth to provide antineoplastic therapies to rural patients by creating a clinical video telehealth clinic of the Virtual Cancer Care Network. This network came into existence while the pandemic and doctors took this route to treat the patients regarding oncology.
In the 8 months after the VCCN was created, 279 CVT appointments were completed, with each patient undergoing three CVT encounters on average. Of the 89 patients participating in CVT between January 23 and September 13, 2018, 87 were male and two were female. The average age was 70 years (range, 45-90 years). The primary site of disease was prostate (19.1%), colorectal (13.4%), and lung (9%).The total costs saved for veterans in mileage alone, using the standard mileage rates published by the Internal Revenue Service7 of $0.58 per mile, was $28,756.
Telehealth can be very much beneficial in cancer treatment and all these stats prove this.
https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/OP.20.00520
