Patient-reported Experience Measure for Neuro-oncology Telephone Clinics during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

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Telemedicine in neurosurgery during SARS-CoV2 Pandemic

“…[22] Blue et al described following limitations of telemedicine examination: difficulties in corneal reflex and visual fields assesment, neuromuscular pathologies: difficulties in examination of tone, rigidity, peripheral strength, subtle signs of Parkinson's disease -rigiditiy, retropulsion pull testing; impossible to perform HINTs exam for vestibular syndrome and Dix-Hallpike for cerebellar examination. [13] Neurooncology is challenged with neuro-cognitive and linguistic deficits, which results in more difficult communication with the patients, with increased difficulty during the remote consultation [15] In spinal surgery it was noted by several authors that virtual spinal examination can miss the subtle neurologic deficits, only possible to examine and assess during face-to-face consultation [11;14] Additionally, it was mentioned that in order to limit the non-necessary emergency calls, the checklist of warning symptoms should be prepared and provided for patients, who can assess the necessity of emergency call themselves with the help of the checklist [9] Speaking of ethical concerns, the main concern is related to the risk of disclosure of the sensitive data and violation of patient's privacy. [9] Depending on the countries technical resources, the virtual clinics have been conducted via hospital encrypted platforms, such as BlueJeans or MyChart, or the regular, non-encrypted messengers, like Facebook Messenger or Zoom.…”

“…These outcomes may allow to introduce a hybrid consultation system in the future, which however has to think of a way of addressing the main challenge: communication with patients with language deficits. [15] In correspondence from Zhang et al, the importance of telemedicine in Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) management and follow-up was highlighted. Telemedicine proved to be an efficient tool in checkup of the parameters, batteries and mental health symptoms with teleprocessing, virtual consultations and self-report assessment scales.…”

COVID: a symphony of science and society

“…Within a week we were running all our outpatient clinics and multidisciplinary team clinical meetings online using the secure Microsoft Teams. 2 We had to accelerate our external e-projects too. Thus the Brain tumouR Information and Analysis Network (BRIAN), a longstanding collaboration with the Brain Tumour Charity, was rapidly incorporated into our service to allow web-based secure communication with patients, providing the much needed support at a time when face-to-face connection was deemed unsafe.…”

Cancer During the Coronavirus Pandemic – As if One Problem Was Not Enough!

“…Another noteworthy observation was that 35% of the patients were dissatisfied with the distancing between them and the doctors. In a study, half of neuro-oncology patients preferred the face-to-face consultations rather than telephone clinics [4].Without compromising the outcomes, we may have to regularly treat COVID-19-positive cancer patients as there seems to be no relief from the pandemic in the near future [5]. With coronavirus infection looming all over, the psychological issues of cancer patients have exacerbated.…”

“…Another noteworthy observation was that 35% of the patients were dissatisfied with the distancing between them and the doctors. In a study, half of neuro-oncology patients preferred the face-to-face consultations rather than telephone clinics [4].…”