What CLL Population Will Benefit Most From Telemedicine?

What CLL Population Will Benefit Most From Telemedicine?

What CLL Population Will Benefit Most From Telemedicine? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Among chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients (CLL), there are some that will benefit more from telemedicine visits that have become common practice during the coronavirus crisis. Watch as respected CLL expert Dr. John Pagel explains.

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How Will Telemedicine Impact Time-Limited Therapy in CLL?

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Transcript:

Stephanie: 
Now the pandemic has, of course, presented both challenges and opportunities for clinicians who are trying to manage diverse health conditions, and of course, we’re not just talking about COVID-19. So on the positive side, Dr. Pagel, what are the opportunities you see for CLL patients using telemedicine?

Dr. John Pagel: 
Well, you’re right, Stephanie, it isn’t just about COVID, but COVID has certainly changed the landscape of how we approach many patients in 2020 and now in the future moving forward and particularly with regards to telemedicine. And that’s particularly relevant to CLL patients in particular. CLL, remember is a chronic disease, it’s of course, part of the name chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and people will live with this disease for many, many years, perhaps even decades, and often not even be getting therapy but still have, of course, the disease.

And they need to be monitored, and they are commonly monitored with what we call active surveillance. And active surveillance is typically, as the audience well knows, periodic evaluations with physical examinations and perhaps even some laboratory blood work that’s done on an associated visit. And because of the need for those things over the last many years of how we follow people, with active surveillance, people. We have seen frequently in the clinic, and perhaps in some ways they’ve been seen when they perhaps could be evaluated and taken care of in a different way, and that’s where telemedicine comes in for select appropriate CLL patients. Where maybe we don’t need to bring them in to see their provider, they can get labs done perhaps locally at their primary care physician’s office, if the labs need to be done. And often the physical exam can be even done by video or — so by showing the provider what might be going on, and lots of times that physical exam may not even be important.

What do I mean by that? We’ll remember, there are lots of times where even if you have a lymph node or two around, we’re not going to actually institute or change treatment. So there’s a very unique important population of people with CLL who could obviously benefit from telemedicine moving forward.