Teleoncology: current and future applications for improving cancer care globally

Abstract

Access to quality cancer care is often unavailable not only in low- and middle-income countries but also in rural or remote areas of high-income countries. Teleoncology (oncology applications of medical telecommunications, including pathology, radiology, and other related disciplines) has the potential to enhance both access to and the quality of clinical cancer care as well as education and training. Its implementation in the developing world requires an approach tailored to priorities, resources, and needs. We believe that teleoncology can best achieve its proposed goals through programmatic, consistent, and long-term application. Here we review teleoncology initiatives that have the potential to decrease cancer care inequality between resource-poor and resource-rich institutions and offer guidelines for the development of teleoncology programs in low- and middle-income countries.

Tumor Boards: Beyond the Patient Care Conference

“…Telemedicine capacity may facilitate attendance of remote individuals as experts or as members present their cases or for educational purposes [4].…”

Improving the histopathologic diagnosis of pediatric malignancies in a low‐resource setting by combining focused training and telepathology strategies

“…A large subset of tumors require an extensive panel of immunostains for accurate diagnosis [2,3] and often require timely expert consultation. However, some developing countries do not have any pathologists [4], or the available pathologists lack the resources and/or training for specialized diagnoses such as pediatric cancers [5,6]. A number of initiatives, such as the International Union Against Cancer Telepathology Consultation Center (UICC-TCC) [7] in Berlin, Germany, and iPath [8] in Basel, Switzerland, have sought to provide remote pathology consultation via telecommunications.…”

“…The International Outreach Program (IOP) of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (St. Jude) has long offered telemedicinebased twinning programs to develop local capacity in developing countries [5]. The Instituto Materno Infantil de Pernambuco (IMIP) in Recife, Brazil (a resource-poor region), is one such partner site [9].…”

“…A number of initiatives, such as the International Union Against Cancer Telepathology Consultation Center (UICC-TCC) [7] in Berlin, Germany, and iPath [8] in Basel, Switzerland, have sought to provide remote pathology consultation via telecommunications. Although such consultations are invaluable for improving patient care, they are not fully effective in the absence of skilled sample preparation and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining at the remote sites.The International Outreach Program (IOP) of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (St. Jude) has long offered telemedicinebased twinning programs to develop local capacity in developing countries [5]. The Instituto Materno Infantil de Pernambuco (IMIP) in Recife, Brazil (a resource-poor region), is one such partner site [9].…”

High-Quality Telemedicine Using Digital Video Transport System over Global Research and Education Network

“…Associated with these large waves of technological development, telemedicine has recently been gaining in popularity. It covers a variety of fields including home health care, remote patient monitoring, telementoring and telesurgery, and also encompasses a wide range of sectors from rural health to advanced treatments (Anvari et al, 2005;Hazin et al, 2010;Hu et al, 2009). However, many doctors are still unfamiliar or unhappy with telemedicine, and the applications are limited to a very small part of daily practice and medical education.…”