Abstract 548P
Background
COVID-19 has affected hundreds of millions of people worldwide and has caused millions of deaths at of the time of writing. The Philippines has had over 4 million cases of COVID-19, which has hampered the delivery of cancer care. Due to the imposition of lockdowns and movement restrictions and health safety protocols especially in 2020 and 2021, delivery of cancer care has created a backlog of patients that need immediate care. This led to the creation of technological solutions such as video and audio teleconferences to minimize the negative impacts of the pandemic. This descriptive study, designed to evaluate cancer patients’ perspectives towards telehealth, was patterned to that of a study by Zimmerman et al, which involved the administration of a validated 18-question Service User Technology Acceptability Questionnair regarding cancer patients’ perceptions of the utility of telehealth.
Methods
Data were collected through questionnaires administered to patients diagnosed with cancer previously or actively receiving chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy from January to May of 2023. Recruitment of survey participants was done face-to-face by proper introduction of the investigators and stating of respective roles, clear explanation of the research and its objectives, obtaining verbal consent and signing the informed consent form. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients.
Results
More than 75% of the participants agreed that telehealth service saved time, increased access to health care, improved their health, made patients become more actively involved in their health, and allowed their doctors to monitor them better. 70.29% of participants agreed that telehealth consultations can be a substitute to regular health or social care, and 87.21% agreed that it can be a good addition to regular health care.
Conclusions
Cancer patients in our institution have a positive perspective on the use of telehealth. Teleconsultations have become a practical innovation which was born from the closure of outpatient clinics and could be used as a regular means of health care provision even in the near future.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Research Advisor: Dr. Raji Shamaileh; Dr. Karl Jeremy Lo; Statistician: Mr. Rhalp Jaylord Valenzuela; Mr. John Rey Masindo.
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.