Chhabra Arpit M, Chowdhary Mudit, Choi J Isabelle, Hasan Shaakir, Press Robert H, Simone Charles B
New York Proton Center, New York City, New York.
Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.
Adv Radiat Oncol. 2021 Jan-Feb;6(1):100611. doi: 10.1016/j.adro.2020.10.024. Epub 2021 Jan 13.
The emergence of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) global pandemic has led to a significant shift in the delivery of health care, including an explosive growth of telemedicine services. This reverberated in the field of radiation oncology, with a recent American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) nationwide survey reporting 89% of surveyed clinics began to offer telemedicine programs to patients because of the pandemic. However, this survey did not study the perceptions and experiences of those clinicians delivering telemedicine services.
We investigated through a national physician survey the merits and limitations of radiation oncology tele-consultations. An anonymous web-based survey was distributed using SurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.com) via email.
Seventy six respondents (16.1% overall response rate) completed the survey, with broad representation from both academic and community-based practices. Many respondents agreed that transitioning to tele-consultations was a needed step given the emergence of the pandemic, despite most having never previously offered this service. Despite many radiation oncologists having little prior experience with tele-consultations, a majority were satisfied in being able to explain the details of a medical diagnosis, provide results of imaging and bloodwork, and discuss recommendations around radiation treatments through this format. Nearly half of the respondents agreed that tele-consultations felt impersonal, with the inability to complete physical examinations noted as a contributor to the impersonality. Nevertheless, respondents still agreed that telemedicine will play an important role going forward, and almost 90% agreed that they would offer tele-consultations even after the pandemic has resolved.
冠状病毒病（COVID-19）全球大流行的出现导致了医疗保健服务提供方式的重大转变，包括远程医疗服务的爆炸式增长。这在放射肿瘤学领域产生了反响，美国放射肿瘤学会（ASTRO）最近的一项全国性调查显示，89%的受调查诊所因疫情开始为患者提供远程医疗项目。然而，这项调查并未研究提供远程医疗服务的临床医生的看法和经历。
我们通过一项全国性的医生调查，研究了放射肿瘤学远程会诊的优点和局限性。使用SurveyMonkey（www.surveymonkey.com）通过电子邮件分发了一份基于网络的匿名调查问卷。
76名受访者（总体回复率为16.1%）完成了调查，学术和社区实践机构均有广泛代表。许多受访者一致认为，鉴于疫情的出现，向远程会诊过渡是必要的一步，尽管大多数人此前从未提供过这项服务。尽管许多放射肿瘤学家此前几乎没有远程会诊的经验，但大多数人对能够通过这种形式解释医疗诊断细节、提供影像和血液检查结果以及讨论放射治疗建议感到满意。近一半的受访者认为远程会诊缺乏人情味，无法进行体格检查被认为是导致缺乏人情味的一个因素。尽管如此，受访者仍然一致认为远程医疗在未来将发挥重要作用，近90%的人同意即使在疫情解决后他们仍会提供远程会诊。
