Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jul 23, 2019
Open Peer Review Period: Jul 26, 2019 - Sep 20, 2019
Date Accepted: Dec 16, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Bringing specialist radiotherapy to the patient: The use of teleconsultations in a regional Stereotactic Radiosurgery service
ABSTRACT
Background:
The NHS’ ‘Long term plan’ details plans to make digital interactions available to all patients in five years. Teleconsultations can improve access to specialist services however there is a lack of UK evidence for the use of teleconsultations in an Oncology setting. Here we describe a service evaluation of teleconsultations for patients attending a regional brain metastases (BM) clinic. These patients have unique travel restrictions that prevent them from driving.
Objective:
To assess the feasibility and acceptability of a teleconsultation service in this setting.
Methods:
From April 2018 to October 2018 all patients attending the BM clinic were offered the choice of a teleconsultation in place of a face-to-face appointment. Feedback was assessed using a satisfaction questionnaire and data was collected on all clinic attendances.
Results:
Sixty-nine individual patients had 119 appointments over the duration of the pilot. Of these, 36 were new patient appointments and 73 were follow ups. Of these, 24 patients (35%) took part in 41 (34%) teleconsultations. 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 (£10.78 per appointment).
Conclusions:
Teleconsultations appear to be acceptable in this cohort of patients who have brain metastases attending a regional stereotactic radiosurgery service with the potential for significant savings in travel and expenses evident.
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