Tag Archive for: psychologists

Bispecific Antibody Therapy Support | Care Team Members and Resources

/in , , , , , , , /by

Bispecific Antibody Therapy Support | Care Team Members and Resources from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

What should myeloma patients know about bispecific antibody therapy support? Nurse practitioner Alexandra Distaso from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute discusses care team members and support resources for bispecific antibody therapy patients and care partners. 

Alexandra Distaso, MSN, FNP-BC is on the Multiple Myeloma Nursing Team at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

See More from The Care Partner Toolkit: Bispecific Antibodies

Related Resources:

How Can Bispecific Antibody Therapy Care Partners Be Proactive?

How Can Bispecific Antibody Therapy Care Partners Be Proactive?

 What Is the Role of a Care Partner in Bispecific Antibody Therapy?

What Is the Role of a Care Partner in Bispecific Antibody Therapy?

 Bispecific Antibody Therapy | Managing Side Effects

Bispecific Antibody Therapy | Managing Side Effects

Transcript:

Katherine:

Besides yourself, what other staff members can care partners turn to for support?  

Alexandra:

So, at our office, we have an amazing group of triage nurses who are available Monday to Friday all during office hours. We have after-hours. If your patient or family member spikes a fever and you’re worried they just don’t look good, there’s always a doctor on 24/7 that you can page to kinda ask for advice and see what to do from there. And again, we have infusion nurses who are giving these injections every day.  

And they are wonderful resources on what you might feel later in the day, what that site might look like, side effects that might pop up. So, really, anyone wants to be there to answer questions to make it easier for the patient or the family.  

Katherine:

Are there social workers or psychologists on the team as well?  

Alexandra:

Yes. We have an amazing group of social workers at Dana-Farber. And one thing that I really like about the way our program is run is that we have a social worker who is dedicated specifically to myeloma. So, they’re very familiar with these medications and the hospitalization requirements, which can be extremely tough. And so having resources and just someone to talk to, both through social work and our psychosocial oncology department, is also a wonderful resource to have.  

Katherine:

What about online resources? Do you have any recommendations?  

Alexandra:

So, I think that the IMF, the International Myeloma Foundation, and the NCI, have amazing resources for patients.  

Actually, the IMF has an entire caregiver support page with kind of caregiver self-help, and ways that you can care for the patient. Care for the caregiver, and care for the patient. I think the MMRF has wonderful resources, and they also have a lot of online forum videos about bispecific antibodies and the different treatments for myeloma that are available if you want to learn more. And then same thing with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Excellent resources online. 

Head and Neck Cancer, What Are Telemedicine Challenges and Opportunities?

/in , , , , , , , /by

Head and Neck Cancer, What Are Telemedicine Challenges and Opportunities? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

For head and neck cancer patients, what barriers and opportunities have emerged from the addition of telemedicine? Watch as expert Dr. Samantha Tam from Henry Ford Health System shares insight about obstacles that she has seen for some patients and some helpful ways these challenges have been overcome in patient care.

See More From The Head & Neck Cancer TelemEDucation Empowerment Resource Center

Related Resources:

Transcript:

Samantha Tam, MD, FRCSC, MPH: 

So there are lots of challenges and opportunities for virtual care and patients with head and neck cancer. One of the challenges is the fact that a lot of head and neck cancers occur within the upper air or digestive tract and therefore it’s very difficult to examine patients or to get an idea of the extent of their cancer, or the disabilities, or difficulties patients encounter as a result of their cancer, because of where the cancer is. On top of that, a lot of patients present to us with difficulties with communication, either they have hoarseness because of glottic cancer or maybe they have airway distress and they already have a tight tube resulting in their inability to formulate well, especially over virtual platforms such as the telephone or virtually through the Internet. These are the major challenges though, they can be overcome with things such as typing answers through the chat functions, as well as writing on a tablet in order for us to read. However, there have been a lot of opportunities for patients with head and neck cancers, I think that the major opportunities are with patients that are seeking help from allied health professionals such as speech language pathologists, psychologists, dietitians, social workers, a lot of these providers that are very involved in the care of patients throughout diagnosis, treatment as well as surveillance. 

These visits are sometimes not requiring any physical examination, not requiring any endoscopic examination and may be well completed through a virtual platform such as telemedicine.