1730P - Electronic medical record (EMR)-assisted phone follow-up (PFU) for breast cancer survivors (CS) during COVID-19 pandemic: An Italian single institution experience

Background

The COVID-19 outbreak became a public health emergency, leading to radical changes in care management. Telemedicine was adopted to minimize hospitals exposure for CS. In our region all patients (pts) data are available through an EMR: thus, the clinicians are able to access at any time CS medical history. From the start of COVID-19 pandemic we adopted EMR-assisted PFU instead of usual follow-up (FU) visit. This study aims to prospectively assess how breast CS perceived PFU.

Methods

We emailed to all breast CS managed by PFU a 15-items survey. Answers were measured with Likert scales. The correlation between CS characteristics and answers were analyzed with Pearson test.

Results

From February 2^nd to May 20^th, 107 out of 261 (41%) pts fulfilled the survey. The median age was 61, median FU was 43 months. 67.3% had high school diploma or higher degrees. 52% CS previously received chemotherapy whereas 80% adjuvant endocrine therapy. 78.5% could reach the hospital autonomously. 66.4% suffered from COVID-19 related anxiety for their health and 85% were waiting for FU visit to feel relief. 96.3% CS believed to have understood medical advice during PFU and were satisfied for the time and the opportunity to ask clarifications. 92% agreed with the decision to switch the usual FU visit in PFU. However, only 41.1% CS would like to have PFU in the future. We found a significant correlation between educational degree and comprehension during the visit (p=0.04) and with expectation for PFU feasibility (p=0.046). Age and educational level were significantly correlated with the ability to reach the hospital (p=0.046). CS treated with endocrine therapy were meaningfully correlated with the PFU satisfaction (p=0.048).

Conclusions

PFU was an important tool to avoid hospital contacts during COVID-19 pandemic and the majority of CS in the survey agreed and felt satisfied from this procedure. The number of CS willing to have PFU in non-emergency situations invites to investigate routine PFU at least for a subset of CS. Prospective randomized trials are warranted to assess the reliability of PFU compared to standard FU visit to implement telemedicine in daily clinical practice.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

The authors.

Funding

Has not received any funding.

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.