Are Mobile-Optimized Tools Making an Impact in Prostate Cancer?

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Are Mobile-Optimized Tools Making an Impact in Prostate Cancer? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Prostate cancer screening can now be accessed via some mobile methods. Dr. Heather Cheng from Seattle Cancer Care Alliance shares information about mobile-optimized tools and access – and how mobile access is working toward health equity.

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Transcript:

Sherea Cary:

Can you speak to any mobile-optimized tools making a difference in prostate cancer?

Dr. Heather Cheng:

So, I don’t know specifically about…well, I can speak about some efforts I know about, but I think the mobile options are really a great idea. And I think the way I would think about it is, there are maybe…and I know this is the case, for example, mammograms. But I know that there can be traveling clinics where they may offer, for example, the prostate-specific antigen blood tests, which can be used as a screening to determine if somebody might have prostate cancer, and that might be something that somebody otherwise is really busy and doesn’t necessarily have access to. Usually, it’s something that is done by the primary care provider but can be done through mobile access, and I think some of the procedures could be done like blood tests for prostate cancer, I think to get an actual diagnosis to really be confident that there is prostate cancer, not something that’s just causing the PSA, that blood test could be high. Sometimes people can have a high PSA without cancer, and so it’s important to actually get a biopsy to help be more confident and know for sure that there’s cancer. That’s usually done in a clinic, but the screening, meaning the sort of trying to figure out if somebody’s at higher risk or not can be done in a mobile van, and I think there are a number of many excellent programs around the country, not enough, probably, but whose mission it is to try to improve access to cancer screening.

Why Is Specialized Care Important in Prostate Cancer?

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Why Is Specialized Care Important in Prostate Cancer? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Prostate cancer specialized care can be utilized in different ways. Dr. Heather Cheng from Seattle Cancer Care Alliance explains the various ways specialized care can be used to help provide the best care in prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment.

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Transcript:

Sherea Cary:

Can you speak to the importance of connecting to specialized care in prostate cancer?

Dr. Heather Cheng:

Yes, I think it is really important when people are thinking about a diagnosis of prostate cancer, which is a difficult thing under the best of circumstances, but it’s so important to get the best information, the most current information. And if you’re thinking about prostate cancer surgery, if you’re thinking about prostate cancer radiation, if you’re thinking about medical therapies, you want to make sure that you have the most up-to-date knowledge and you’re in the best hands, and sometimes that’s going to a cancer center or a center that does see a lot of patients like you, who have cared for a lot of patients who have been in a situation like yours and have a lot more experience and have knowledge about the most current treatments and have experience. And so I think it’s important when you’re getting a diagnosis to get that information, and to at least have knowledge about all of your options and get the best knowledge, and I think that’s where patient education and then also getting second opinions can be really helpful, and telemedicine is allowing that to be easier, but really getting all the information before you make a decision and feeling that you’re well-informed is really going to go a long way in improving your outcomes and getting kind of the best treatment that you deserve, right? Patients really deserve that.

Can Prostate Cancer Patients Rely on Telemedicine Without Risk?

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Can Prostate Cancer Patients Rely on Telemedicine Without Risk? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Prostate cancer patients may have concerns about risks posed with telemedicine care. Dr. Heather Cheng from Seattle Cancer Care Alliance discusses telemedicine risks and benefits and specific situations when in-person visits help provide optimal patient care.

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What Are PSA and PSMA?

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Are Mobile-Optimized Tools Making an Impact in Prostate Cancer?

Transcript:

Sherea Cary:

Is relying on telemedicine when managing prostate cancer without risk?

Dr. Heather Cheng:

No, I think with anything, there’s always some risk, I think the risks that I see as much as there are possibilities and benefits is that it can be difficult sometimes to get all the information about a patient from two dimensions. There’s a lot to be said for seeing somebody in a room in 3D, and really getting a sense of their overall help, being able to examine them, so sometimes there are things we can’t replace in terms of listening to somebody’s heart and lungs then maybe doing other examination and procedures to really understand where the patient is things like biopsies, things like treatment, seems like blood draw may still need to be part of the patient’s care in order to give the best recommendations, so even though I think there’s a huge amount of possibility for benefit of telemedicine, there are some things that cannot be replaced, and that’s the danger that if patients don’t come, if I never see somebody in 3D in clinic, then I’m losing some valuable information about that patient, and so there are times when we still like to see people maybe it’s not as frequently, so it’s more convenient, but there are times when we definitely still need to meet with people face-to-face, do procedures or medications or just lay eyes on them in real life.

So, I think that’s a danger. If that’s not present at all, then we’re going to miss important things in people’s healthcare.

Telemonitoring and How It Benefits Prostate Cancer Patients

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Telemonitoring and How It Benefits Prostate Cancer Patients from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Prostate cancer can benefit from the use of telemonitoring as part of care.  Dr. Heather Cheng from Seattle Cancer Care Alliance explains telemonitoring and situations when telemonitoring can be beneficial for prostate cancer care. 

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Are Mobile-Optimized Tools Making an Impact in Prostate Cancer?

Transcript:

Sherea Cary:

What is telemonitoring? And does it benefit prostate cancer patients?

Dr. Heather Cheng:

Yeah, telemonitoring. I think probably for prostate cancer it would best be described as monitoring symptoms, side effects, and may also include following the PSA blood and other blood tests that can be drawn at the convenience of the patient, so they may be for example, a patient could go to the lab, have their blood drawn on the weekend when they’re not working, and then have those results be available for their visit, or sometimes they don’t even need to have a visit and they can do a lot of the communications by the patient web portal, so we increasingly have that as an option where the nurses are able to…the whole team can work together to us help the patient in between, so maybe it’s not in real time, but it’s a little bit like email or Twitter where there can be communication about a patient’s healthcare and maybe a side effect optimization like somebody’s having side effects and we adjust the medication or we add another medication to make it more easy to manage, so that’s definitely something that I think is more possible in the current era of telemedicine and telemonitoring.

How Can We Improve Remote Access for Prostate Cancer Patients?

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How Can We Improve Remote Access for Prostate Cancer Patients? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How can prostate cancer remote access and care be improved for patients? Dr. Heather Cheng from Seattle Cancer Care Alliance shares how optimal remote care can be ensured and explains some situations when in-person care can provide better care. 

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Should Prostate Cancer Patients and Families Keep Using Telemedicine?

Should Prostate Cancer Patients and Families Keep Using Telemedicine?

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Prostate Cancer Treatment Tools and Advancements

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Why Is Specialized Care Important in Prostate Cancer? 

Transcript:

Sherea Cary:

It sounds like to me that telemedicine is similar to the work from home, and it seems like we’re all getting benefits from the ability to be able to do some things in a remote fashion. Are there any steps being taken to improve remote access for prostate cancer patients?

Dr. Heather Cheng:

Yeah, I think…I don’t know that the efforts that we have are specific to prostate cancer patients, but I sure hope that prostate cancer patients, like all of our patients across medicine can continue to benefit from these new technologies, and I think we are getting better…we’re not perfect, of course, there’s always room for improvement, but we’re getting better at trying to partner with our patients to figure out how to do this in a way that is as optimal as possible, and sometimes I think there is great value still to seeing people face to face and examining them, and sometimes that can’t really be replaced, but maybe that’s not all the time for all the visits, and so as long as patients are comfortable using the platform, using the telemedicine, using the software and the phone, those things, some patients aren’t. So, I think we need to really make sure that the patients who are not comfortable or who need a little extra help with the technology get the help they need so that they are not left behind. Because I do worry a little bit about people who may be not as comfortable with using video conference or ZOOM or things that many of us are getting more familiar with, but not all patients are, so we need to just make sure we’re thinking about those of those who may not be quite as comfortable or maybe whose Internet access is not as stable, things like that.

Dr. Leanne Burnham’s Top Tips for Your Prostate Cancer Telemedicine Visit

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Dr. Leanne Burnham’s Top Tips for Your Prostate Cancer Telemedicine Visit from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo. 

What are some ways that prostate cancer patients can prepare for telemedicine visits? Dr. Leanne Burnham shares her top tips for ensuring success and for getting the most out of televisit appointments.

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What Prostate Cancer Populations Will Benefit Most From Telemedicine?

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What Are the Benefits of Telemedicine for Prostate Cancer Patients?
 

Transcript:

Dr. Leanne Burnham

Okay, my top three tips to prepare for a telemedicine visit is if you would usually have an advocate come with you to your in-person doctor’s appointment, try to make that happen for your televisit appointment as well. And explain to your physician when you get on the call say, “Hey, this is my wife, this is my husband, and they’re going to be joining the call if they have a few questions too, and I would like to have them be involved as part of the conversation.” The other thing is to have your questions prepared ahead of time, you know, and a lot of people have questions prepared ahead of time for in-person visits, but they might be nervous, they might keep their questions tucked away, well, this way your questions can be on the table next to you. Your doctor doesn’t even know, you still get to ask those questions though, and then the third tip that I would have is to allow for technology to mess up. So, for your visits, a lot of times your physician may give you a window where they say, “We’re going to call you between such and such time,” such as such time, you just sitting there waiting for them to call. But I say give yourself even more time than that in case you know something’s going on with your Internet or you are just not able to log into the app well, because I did have that happen to me personally, one time with the physician, and they were trying to get ahold of me, and I was having trouble connecting, and then he emailed me later saying, “You missed our appointment.”

I really wasn’t trying to miss the appointment, so just give yourself that extra time to get your technology together.

What Prostate Cancer Populations Will Benefit Most From Telemedicine?

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

With a lack of staging in prostate cancer, which patients can benefit the most from telemedicine visits? Dr. Leanne Burnham maps out factors that may make some patients lower risk and situations that may warrant other patients to be seen in person to receive optimal prostate cancer care.

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How Will Telemedicine Impact Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials?

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Will Telemedicine Mitigate Financial Toxicity for Prostate Cancer Patients?
 

Transcript:

Dr. Leanne Burnham

So, prostate cancer is a very diverse disease. It presents itself differently in the clinic in each individual patient, so who is considered low risk, who is considered high risk is really a personal conversation that you have with your physician one-on-one, and it’s based on a lot of different factors. It’s not as cut and dry as some other cancers where you may break the disease down by just stage, simply stage I, stage II, stage III, stage IV. There’s a lot that goes into determining how aggressive someone’s prostate cancer tumors are. That being said, if you are considered to be low risk, you may be undergoing active surveillance by your physician or watchful waiting and in that situation, telemedicine would probably be a perfect approach where you get your labs done every few months or whatever your physician decides. And they can track your PSA velocity or doubling time and seeing if your PSA is growing, by growing I mean increasing in circulation or if it’s not which would be ideal. If you are more high risk, then you may need to increase your telemedicine visits. And, of course, if you are taking therapies that cannot be done from home, then you would need to go to a clinical setting, so that would include radiation of course, and chemotherapy, immunotherapy, perhaps. If you’re enrolled in a clinical trial where you need to go on-site to receive the medication, then that’s something that cannot just be done by telemedicine, you would have to go in-person.

What Are the Limitations of Telemedicine for Prostate Cancer Patients?

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What Are the Limitations of Telemedicine for Prostate Cancer Patients? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo. 

For prostate cancer care, what are some differences that patients experience with telemedicine visits rather than in-person visits? Dr. Leanne Burnham details some telehealth limitations that she has noticed in care for her patients.

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What Are the Benefits of Telemedicine for Prostate Cancer Patients?

What Prostate Cancer Populations Will Benefit Most From Telemedicine?

Will Telemedicine Mitigate Financial Toxicity for Prostate Cancer Patients?
 

Transcript:

Dr. Leanne Burnham

Well, some limitations that we’re seeing with telemedicine use, I can speak to, not only as a scientist, but also as an advocate for my loved ones, and seeing how telemedicine works in real time. It’s a little bit different when you can’t have your spouse or your parent or your sibling come with you into an office visit. Having your advocate sitting next to you on a virtual visit can come across a little bit more differently than when it’s in-person, and so that some of the personal effects are lost, I feel at times with the telemedicine approach. Then there’s also the idea of a telemedicine appointment often being like a double appointment, so let’s say, for example, if I were to go to a doctor in-person and I need to have some lab work done, you kind of can get it done at the same time. You go to your appointment, and then you go around the corner to get your labs done. Whereas now it may be that you have a telemedicine visit, and now it’s like, okay, you need to go get those labs, so you still have to find other time where you have to go and get that done, so it can tend to spread the experience out for some people.

What Are the Benefits of Telemedicine for Prostate Cancer Patients?

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What Are the Benefits of Telemedicine for Prostate Cancer Patients? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo. 

What are some of the telemedicine benefits that prostate cancer patients can experience beyond the most obvious ones? Expert Dr. Leanne Burnham shares patient safety, logistical, and care option benefits that she has seen with telehealth for her patients — and also shares the percentage of prostate cancer patients who prefer virtual visits

See More From the Prostate Cancer TelemEDucation Empowerment Resource Center

Related Resources:

 

Dr. Leanne Burnham’s Top Tips for Your Prostate Cancer Telemedicine Visit

What Prostate Cancer Populations Will Benefit Most From Telemedicine?

How Will Telemedicine Impact Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials?
 

Transcript:

Dr. Leanne Burnham

So telemedicine is presenting all kinds of new opportunities for any patient, but in terms of prostate cancer patients they fall into that category as well. What we’re seeing is that actually, the majority of patients prefer telemedicine upwards of 75 percent prefer to have that option, and adding virtual care has a few benefits including you don’t have to travel to the doctor, and you have access to maybe more options, more physician options, more institutional options. Maybe there’s a setting where they have a treatment that the location that you previously have gone to, doesn’t have. You have an option to network outside of your usual team to speak with other specialists, maybe get a second opinion. So that is something that patients are really saying that they like in the time of COVID that we are right now, where telemedicine is definitely increasing.