Telehealth in cancer care: a mixed methods study of view of patients and clinicians

PROFESSOR JENNIFER PHILIP
Chair of Palliative Medicine
Palliative Nexus, UMCCR and St Vincent's Melbourne

COVID-19 necessitated the rapid adoption of new models of care delivery to facilitate remote healthcare access.  This study examined medical oncology and palliative care clinician and patient reported perceptions of the acceptability of telehealth, with a view to understanding the ongoing applicability of this model of care based upon specific patient characteristics.

We will report on a multisite, mixed method study evaluating consecutive outpatient medical oncology and palliative care telehealth appointments occurring from June 2020 till March 2021, with data collection involving: 1. Clinician-reported outcome measures; 2) Matched patient-reported outcome measures; and 3. Exploratory qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of patients and clinicians.

The implications of these results will be discussed in the context of continuing COVID and post-COVID restrictions.

Professor Jennifer Philip is the appointed Chair of Palliative Medicine, University of Melbourne, St Vincent’s Hospital and in collaboration by the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre. Jennifer is a palliative care clinician, researcher and teacher whose particular areas of interest include improving the ways supportive and palliative care are delivered, ensuring care is underpinned by high quality evidence and that it is delivered by well trained professionals and carers. She leads the Palliative Nexus group.