The Role of Telemedicine in Providing Thoracic Oncology Care to Remote Areas of British Columbia

Purpose of review The purpose of this study is to review the role of telemedicine in providing oncology care; we describe our long-standing, high-volume telemedicine experience. Recent findings The Interior Health Thoracic Surgical Group (IHTSG) uses telemedicine, through Virtual Thoracic Surgical C...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current oncology reports 2017-08, Vol.19 (8), p.52-52, Article 52
Main Authors: Humer, Michael F., Campling, Barbara G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
British Columbia
Delivery of Health Care - methods
Health Services Accessibility
Humans
Lung Cancer (JM Johnson
Medical Oncology - methods
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Oncology
Patients
Remote Consultation - methods
Reproducibility of Results
Section Editor
Telemedicine
Telemedicine - methods
Thoracic Neoplasms - diagnosis
Thoracic Neoplasms - therapy
Thoracic Surgery - methods
Thorax
Topical Collection on Lung Cancer
Travel
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Summary:Purpose of review The purpose of this study is to review the role of telemedicine in providing oncology care; we describe our long-standing, high-volume telemedicine experience. Recent findings The Interior Health Thoracic Surgical Group (IHTSG) uses telemedicine, through Virtual Thoracic Surgical Clinics (VTSC), to provide service to remote patients. The IHTSG serves a population of 1.01 million people over an area of 807,538 km 2 (1.3 persons/km 2 ) in the Interior and North of British Columbia, Canada. Between 2003 and 2015, the IHTSG conducted 15,073 telemedicine patient encounters at 63 geographic sites. Telemedicine saved these patients a total travel distance of 11.5 million km—an average of 766 km per patient. VTSC supports and strengthens the Hub and Spoke model of healthcare delivery—patients residing remotely can easily access centrally delivered service. Summary Telemedicine makes specialized care available to all patients by overcoming a major impediment to access, namely distance.
ISSN:1523-3790
1534-6269
DOI:10.1007/s11912-017-0612-7