1641P Patient preferences towards the application of telemedicine on cancer care during Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. ONCOTELEMED STUDY

Abstract

COVID-19 became a worldwide pandemic in March 2020. To reduce virus spread and ensure continuity of cancer care, the use of telehealth was rapidly implemented. Currently, there is no mature data on patient's perception about the use of telemedicine during this period, so we sought to evaluate the opinion of patients with cancer who were attended telematically in Hospital Parc Taulí. 646 patients were visited by an oncologist via phone call between Marc 13 and April 30 2020. A 12-question survey was conducted between February 4 and April 19 2021 during an in-person visit or by telephone. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of our hospital. 487 patients (75.4%) responded; 57% by phone call. Median age was 68 years [27-90]. 65.7% of patients had a follow-up visit and 34.3% were receiving treatment. Most patients (>80%) were satisfied with the telephonic visit and believed that it was useful to solve their concerns. Around 60% said that they would agree to continue with some virtual visits following the COVID-19 pandemic. 62% of patients would agree to be informed telematically of radiological results while 82% would agree for analytical results. 52% would agree to be visited virutally if they were receiving an oral treatment whereas only 33.5% would agree if the treatment was endovenous. In general, younger patients (<50 years old) feel more comfortable with virtual visits than older ones (>70 y) (77.4% vs 62%, p=0.07). Only 20% of patients older than 50 believe that they can handle new technologies as opposed to 58.5% of younger ones (p=0.001). 60.4% of the younger patients would like to have different technological tools to contact their oncologist whereas most patients (47.6%) older than 70 prefer only phone calls (p=0.001). Regardless of the type of visit (treatment or follow-up) patients felt comfortable with virtual attendance (58.7% and 65.6% respectively, p=0.2). As a whole, patients surveyed believed that telehealth could have a role following the COVID-19 pandemic. However, telemedicine is not applicable in all cases. Visits to older patients, to inform about radiological results and to patients recieving treatment should be assessed case by case.