The impact of converting to telehealth for cancer genetic counseling and testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020 resulted in a shift to telemedicine for cancer genetic counseling (GC). The objective of this study was to determine the effect of telehealth (TH) services on patient acceptance of recommended genetic testing, time to test completion, and follow-up test-disclosure GC appointment, as well as compliance with National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recommendations for medical screenings when testing positive for a genetic variant. Data for this retrospective cohort study were collected at a tertiary-care academic health center using the electronic medical record and laboratory portal. Patients with traditional in-person visits (the 2019 control group) and date-matched TH visits (2020) were compared. In total, 206 new GC appointments occurred in the in-person group and 184 new appointments occurred in the TH group. The in-person group was more likely to consent to testing than the TH cohort (92.6% vs. 82.1%, p = 0.003) and had increased rates of sample submission (99.5% vs. 93.75%, p < 0.01), as well as a shorter turn-around time between their initial appointment and laboratory result reporting (34.24 vs. 20.32 days, p < 0.01). There was no increase in time from initial to follow-up GC appointments (67.87 days for control, 62.39 days for THs, p = 0.37). With >2.5 years of follow-up for all study participants, there were no statistically significant differences in pathogenic variant (PV) carrier compliance with screening recommendations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, use of TH allowed patients to access GC with no significant differences in time between initial consultation and follow-up. However, in-person visits were associated with increased patient willingness to consent to and complete genetic testing. This work offers a nuanced look at the success of TH GC during the pandemic and follow-up with screening recommendations, while offering future opportunities to address the acceptance of testing as GC is practiced in a virtual or hybrid model.