Smartphone-based telemedicine service at palliative care unit during nationwide lockdown: Our initial experience at a tertiary care cancer hospital

Abstract

Background and Aims: With the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown, and fear from contagion, the advantages of telemedicine are clearly outweighing the setbacks by minimizing the need for individuals to visit health-care facilities. Our study aims to assess how palliative medicine physicians could follow up on cancer patients and barriers they faced, discuss their results, and evaluate their treatment response with the help of telemedicine. Materials and Methods: We conducted a prospective analysis of the smartphone-based telemedicine service at our palliative care (PC) unit from March 25, 2020, to May 13, 2020. We recorded the patient's reason for call, main barriers to a hospital visit, and the assistance given to them by the physician on call. Each caller was asked to measure his/her satisfaction with the service on a 4-point scale. Results: Out of 314 patients, 143 (45.54%) belonged to Delhi and 171 (54.46%) belonged to other states. 157 patients sought help for symptom management; 86 patients needed to restock their opioid medications. Seventy-one patients required information regarding their oncological treatments requiring consultation from other departments. Titration of oral opioids and medication prescription ( n = 129), contact details of other PC units at their native state for opioid procurement ( n = 55), and attachment to our community-based PC service ( n = 22) were main modes of management. Fifty-six patients were very satisfied and 152 patients were satisfied with the service. Conclusion: Telemedicine is the future of health-care delivery systems. In PC, we deal with immunocompromised debilitated cancer patients and telemedicine is immensely helpful for us to provide holistic integrated care to these patients who are unable to visit hospitals regularly.

Online follow-up with a mobile device improves incurable cancer patients’ coping – A qualitative study

“…The disease-related information and guidance available through the application promotes patients' symptom management and therefore enhances their ability to cope with their cancer. This was confirmed in the studies by Schuit et al (2019) and Biswas et al (2020).…”

“…In addition, according to previous studies, cancer patients often experience receiving inadequate information regarding the continuity of their care (Liptrott et al, 2020) and the management of their symptoms (Biswas et al, 2020). This can be understood as a factor in patients' feelings of a lack of safety in the course of their treatment.…”

Application of Smartphone Technologies in Disease Monitoring: A Systematic Review

“…Furthermore, the restrictions enforced in hospital visits globally due to COVID-19 have forced cancer screening programmes to halt, risking the chances of early diagnosis [ 87 ]. In contrast, the use of smartphone-based telemedicine has enabled palliative care physicians to follow-up on cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic period and enabling symptom management, restocking of opioid medications, and providing information regarding oncological treatments requiring consultation with other departments [ 88 ].…”

“…Smartphone-based telemedicine has good prospects in the future of healthcare delivery systems amongst cancer patients, especially among those unable to visit hospitals regularly due to a weakened immune system [ 88 ]. There is a scope for smartphone integrated technologies in biomedical image analysis including detection for skin/breast cancer [ 83 , 89 , 90 ], cancer pain management [ 91 ], treatment of breast cancer [ 92 ], and dissemination of information to help cancer patients in non-clinical settings [ 93 ].…”

Virtual home-based palliative care during COVID-19: A qualitative exploration of the patient, caregiver, and healthcare provider experience

“…[6][7][8][9] This transition added to the already-significant burden imposed on palliative homecare providers during the pandemic, 9 which led to delays in the provision of palliative care and patient-provider communication. 10,11 Despite increased use of virtual healthcare services, perceptions of the usefulness of virtual palliative care remain variable. Patients, caregivers and healthcare providers prefer in-person visits.…”