O'Cathail Micheal, Aznar-Garcia Luis, Sivanandan Ananth, Diver Claire, Patel Poulam, Tang Pui-Shan, Christian Judith
Department of Oncology & Radiotherapy, Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
JMIR Form Res. 2021 Feb 5;5(2):e15598. doi: 10.2196/15598.
The National Health Service Long Term Plan details plans to make digital interactions available to all patients in 5 years. Teleconsultations can improve access to specialist services; however, there is a lack of evidence for the use of teleconsultations in an oncology setting in the United Kingdom.
We aim to describe a service evaluation of teleconsultations for patients attending a regional brain metastases clinic. These patients have unique travel restrictions that prevent them from driving.
From April to October 2018, all patients attending the brain metastases clinic were offered the choice of teleconsultation in place of a face-to-face appointment. Feedback was assessed using a satisfaction questionnaire, and data of all clinic attendances were collected.
A total of 69 individual patients had 119 appointments over the duration of the pilot, of which 36 (30.2%) were new patient appointments and 73 (61.3%) were follow-ups. Of the 69 patients, 24 (35%) took part in teleconsultations (41/119, 34.5%). User satisfaction was high, and no patients who took part in a teleconsultation reverted to face-to-face appointments. These patients avoided 2521 miles (61.6 miles per appointment) of hospital-associated travel and travel costs of £441.48 (US $599.83) to £10.78 (US $14.65) per appointment.
Teleconsultations appear to be acceptable in this cohort of patients with brain metastases attending a regional stereotactic radiosurgery service with the potential for significant savings in travel and expenses.
英国国家医疗服务体系长期计划详细说明了在5年内让所有患者都能进行数字交互的计划。远程会诊可以改善患者获得专科服务的机会；然而，在英国肿瘤学环境中使用远程会诊缺乏证据。
我们旨在描述对参加地区脑转移瘤诊所的患者进行远程会诊的服务评估。这些患者有独特的出行限制，无法开车。
2018年4月至10月，所有前往脑转移瘤诊所就诊的患者都可以选择远程会诊来代替面对面预约。通过满意度调查问卷评估反馈，并收集所有诊所就诊的数据。
在试点期间，共有69名患者进行了119次预约，其中36次（30.2%）是新患者预约，73次（61.3%）是随访预约。在这69名患者中，24名（35%）参与了远程会诊（41/119，34.5%）。用户满意度很高，没有参与远程会诊的患者恢复为面对面预约。这些患者避免了2521英里（每次预约61.6英里）与医院相关的出行以及每次预约441.48英镑（599.83美元）至10.78英镑（14.65美元）的出行费用。
对于参加地区立体定向放射外科服务的这组脑转移瘤患者，远程会诊似乎是可以接受的，并且有可能大幅节省出行和费用。
