Abstract
ObjectiveThe Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) Online Task Force was created in response to the challenges facing continuity of integrative oncology care resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Task Force set out to guide integrative oncology practitioners in providing effective and safe online consultations and treatments for quality-of-life-concerns and symptom management. Online treatments include manual, acupuncture, movement, mind-body, herbal, and expressive art therapies.MethodsThe SIO Online Practice Recommendations employed a four-phase consensus process: (1) literature review and discussion among an international panel of SIO members, identifying key elements essential in an integrative oncology visit; (2) development, testing, and refinement of a questionnaire defining challenges and strategies; (3) refinement input from integrative oncology experts from 19 countries; and (4) SIO Executive Committee review identifying the most high-priority challenges and strategies.ResultsThe SIO Online Practice Recommendations address ten challenges, providing practical suggestions for online treatment/consultation. These include overcoming unfamiliarity, addressing resistance among patients and healthcare practitioners to online consultation/treatment, exploring ethical and medical-legal aspects, solving technological issues, preparing the online treatment setting, starting the online treatment session, maintaining effective communication, promoting specific treatment effects, involving the caregiver, concluding the session, and ensuring continuity of care.ConclusionsThe SIO Online Practice Recommendations are relevant for ensuring continuity of care beyond the present pandemic. They can be implemented for patients with limited accessibility to integrative oncology treatments due to geographic constraints, financial difficulties, physical disability, or an unsupportive caregiver. These recommendations require further study in practice settings.
Highlights
For more than two decades, oncology patients in the USA and around the world who are interested in complementary medicine have been increasingly referred by conventional healthcare professionals for integrative oncology consultation and treatment services
Integrative oncology clinical practice has been supported by evidence arising from high-quality randomized controlled trials that indicate many integrative oncology modalities are both effective and safe for the management of issues that impinge on patients’ quality of life (QoL), such as cancer-related pain [2], chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting [3], cancer-related fatigue [4], and endocrine treatment-related hot flashes and night sweats [5]
This paper presents the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) Online Practice Recommendations with the goal of supporting integrative oncology practitioners, including those trained in conventional and/or complementary medicine, in addressing their patients’ supportive care, QoL, and symptom management needs by providing effective and safe online integrative oncology consultations and treatments during this time of pandemic risk, which can be applied moving forward to expand the accessibility and reach of integrative oncology care worldwide even post-pandemic
Summary
For more than two decades, oncology patients in the USA and around the world who are interested in complementary medicine have been increasingly referred by conventional healthcare professionals for integrative oncology consultation and treatment services. The Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO), founded in 2003, has as its stated goal to advance evidence-based, comprehensive, integrative healthcare to improve the lives of people affected by cancer. The SIO is an international organization with published evidence-based guidelines for general cancer patients and for individuals living with lung and breast cancer [6, 7]. The latter guidelines were subsequently endorsed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology [8]
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