When Should Head and Neck Cancer Patients Seek In-Person Care?
When Should Head and Neck Cancer Patients Seek In-Person Care? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
What are instances for head and neck cancer patients to seek in-person visits for care? Watch as expert Dr. Samantha Tam from Henry Ford Health System explains situations that warrant in-person visits to care providers and her recommended precautions to ensure optimal safety for in-person care.
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Transcript:
Samantha Tam, MD, FRCSC, MPH:
So to protect yourself from the Delta variant of coronavirus, one of the most important steps would be for vaccination and also following national guidelines in terms of how to protect yourself generally, like good hand hygiene, mask wearing, et cetera, et cetera, in terms of trying to seek care virtually versus in-person, patients should discuss this with their provider to see exactly what they are comfortable with, some post-operative visits might be able to be moved to a virtual platform, but again, sometimes it is difficult to examine patients with…that have undergone complex head and neck cancer surgery on a virtual platform adequately. So I think that a one-on-one discussion with your provider should give you a good idea about what can be moved in-person onto a virtual platform, and that way you can ensure that you have the adequate amount of care that you need for your head and neck cancer.
Okay. Seeking in-person care, I think is especially important for patients that are having symptoms from their head and neck cancer, these patients are the ones that I would consider at highest risk for some type of abnormality on physical examination that we might not be able to catch on a virtual platform, and patients that are far out from surveillance and well into survivorship, these visits might be less necessary to be in person. So again, I think it’s important for you to discuss with your provider regarding whether or not they think that you need to be seen in person versus virtually.
