Tag Archive for: telemedicine

Should MPN Patients and Their Families Continue Telemedicine?

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Should MPN Patients and Their Families Continue Telemedicine? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Can myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) patients still get value from telemedicine? Dr. Kristen Pettit from Rogel Cancer Center explains some of the pros and cons of telemedicine visits and ways to optimize MPN patient care.

See More From the MPN TelemEDucation Resource Center

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Transcript:

Dr. Kristen Pettit:

I think telemedicine has been one of the few good things to come out of the COVID era. There are pros and cons, certainly, some pros are that patients can have increased access to their physicians and their medical teams, particularly the MPN specialty centers that might not be right in their backyard. It’s great, it’s a great way to be able to stay in touch with an MPN specialist.

The less travel, less waiting in a waiting room. Those are all great things, the cons, the downsides to keep in mind are that virtually we can’t feel for spleens, so it’s difficult to tell if the spleen is starting to get enlarged. There can also be some logistical challenges getting blood counts drawn and interpreted before a telehealth visit. But with those minor challenges, I think telemedicine is here to stay, and I think it’s an important part of the care for patients with MPNs. 

Remote monitoring is very important for patients with MPNs, really the most important thing, in my opinion, for patients with MPNs being monitored over time is for them to keep an eye on their symptoms over time, watching for any changes in their bodies that they may feel as far as their spleens feeling more enlarged or feeling more full, or losing weight unexpectedly, feeling more fatigued, any of their MPN symptoms getting worse. All of those are easy to monitor at home, virtually, and to report back to your physician over telehealth or at routine visits.

What Does Teleoncology Mean for Myeloproliferative Care?

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What Does Teleoncology Mean for Myeloproliferative Care? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

 Myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) patients can benefit from various aspects of teleoncology. Watch to learn about teleoncology, benefits for MPN patients, and potential future developments with teleoncology.

See More From the MPN TelemEDucation Resource Center

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Transcript:

Teleoncology carries out clinical oncology remotely and can cover all aspects of oncology care including cancer diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up phases for patients. As with other cancer types, MPN patients can benefit from many aspects of teleoncology.  

Teleoncology is a more targeted part of telemedicine, which is especially beneficial for MPN care. Teleoncology provides more frequent monitoring of symptoms, treatment side effects, physical functions as well as easier patient access to lab tests and protecting patients from extra exposure to viruses and infection risks.

With the evolution of treatments that can now be delivered via convenient methods like wearable patches, the future of teleoncology looks promising. MPN patients will have fewer visits for their treatment and can enjoy a higher quality of life with more frequent remote check-ins with their MPN specialist.

What Does Remote Patient Monitoring Mean for MPN Patients?

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What Does Remote Patient Monitoring Mean for MPN Patients? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) patients are a patient group who already used remote patient monitoring before the COVID-19 pandemic. Watch to learn about remote patient monitoring, recent advancements for MPN patient care, and expectations for future developments from remote patient monitoring.

See More From the MPN TelemEDucation Resource Center

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What Do Telegenetic Consultations Mean for MPN Patients?

 What Do Biosensors Mean for Myeloproliferative Care?

 Should MPN Patients and Their Families Continue Telemedicine?

Transcript:

Remote patient monitoring was already in use before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and technology improvements were fast-tracked by federal grants from the U.S. government. Telemedicine appointments and monitoring of the heart, lungs, brain, and muscles through remote technologies can be easily carried out for improved remote care.

Though remote patient monitoring of MPN patients was already in practice through periodic monitoring of blood work, advancements have been made in recent months. These improvements allow patients to visit their MPN specialist less frequently as their provider advises. While protecting patients from virus and infection risks, fewer visits save time and travel costs while also allowing optimal patient care in collaboration with their provider.  

As remote patient monitoring technologies continue to increase and improve over time, they will continue to help refine patient care. MPN patients can expect personalized care that becomes even more tailored to their needs, which will result in improved quality of life and less time in care appointments and traveling time for care appointments.

Please remember to ask your healthcare team what may be right for you.

What Do Telegenetic Consultations Mean for MPN Patients?

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What Do Telegenetic Consultations Mean for MPN PAtients? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) patients have a telegenetic consultation as another option that has emerged for the telemedicine toolbox. Watch to learn about telegenetic consultations, what they mean for MPN patients, and future developments.

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 Should MPN Patients and Their Families Continue Telemedicine?

Transcript:

Telegenetic consultations are those that can be carried out via telemedicine with genetic counselors. With the rise of genetic mutations playing a factor in cancer care and treatment decisions, it’s a natural progression for telegenetic consultations to become another option in the telemedicine tool box that protects patients from exposure to viruses and potential infections and saves them valuable time, energy, and travel costs.

With personalized medicine becoming an integral part of MPN patient care that analyze genetic mutations like JAK2 mutations and MPL mutations, telegenetic consultations make sense as another part of the tools for MPN care. The future of MPN care looks brighter with these virtual care options as part of the equation.

A form of tattoos called e-skins have now emerged as part of remote health monitoring. Used for detecting physical and electrical functions including heart, muscle, and brain activity, e-skins have shown reliability in monitoring tests even under body stress situations like sweating and while consuming spicy foods.

Please remember to ask your healthcare team what may be right for you.

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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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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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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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.

Should Prostate Cancer Patients and Families Keep Using Telemedicine?

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Should Prostate Cancer Patients and Families Keep Using Telemedicine? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

 Prostate cancer patients can still utilize telemedicine after COVID-19 restrictions have lessened. Dr. Heather Cheng from Seattle Cancer Care Alliance shares information about situations when telemedicine visits can be helpful for patients.

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Transcript:

Sherea Cary:

Dr. Cheng, now that telemedicine has broader applications, should prostate cancer patients and families keep telemedicine in their toolbox post-COVID?

Dr. Heather Cheng:

Yes, I actually think it’s one of the…telemedicine, in general, is one of the silver linings of COVID, I think from a member of the medical community, we had to learn…actually, I was already doing some telemedicine, limited telemedicine before COVID hit. But I do think for patients who have access to an Internet or a smartphone and are able to do their visits, it is really decreasing the burden on them in terms of how much time they have to take off work to go to their medical appointments, I think there are times when patients still have to go into clinic, for example, to get treatment, but a lot of times, at least for prostate cancer patients, they can have their PSA that prostate-specific antigen blood test, checked in a lab close to their home, and then you know, at a time that’s convenient to them. And then I can do a telehealth with them later, so that they don’t have to take as much time off work. And so, I think in some cases it’s really, really made it easier for patients, although there are still times when we do need to see them in person, it’s just really nice to have that as an option.

So, I really do think that’s a really good thing, and I hope that the medical community and patients can continue to benefit from that. The other time when it’s helpful is for second opinions and consultation, so this is also really important for patients to know about it, is the first time they’re making a big decision about their treatment and they’re not 100 percent sure maybe they want to get us that an opinion, just to make sure that other doctors agree and that they get another chance to hear the treatment options explained in a different way. And I see a lot of patients for second opinions just to kind of get more confidence, maybe they’ll still decide to get treatment with their local oncologist, because it’s easier closer to home and less disruptive than to come to see us in Seattle. But it still gives them more confidence that they’re going down the right treatment path, so I think telemedicine also makes that a lot easier for patients as well.

Breast Cancer Telemedicine Tips: How to Make the Most of Your Visit

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We all have acknowledged that the silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the use of telehealth services. You should have a choice on who you feel comfortable with on your healthcare team and now telemedicine grants that choice to many populations.

Newly diagnosed breast cancer patients living in a rural area or farther from major academic health centers are now able to obtain second opinions from experts without travel and with minimal exposure to COVID-19. The quality of a televisit does not differ from an in-person visit. Although you’ll be without a physical exam, your provider can still prescribe medications and send you for various tests/blood work.

Tips

Know When to Use Telehealth

If you are unsure that your chief complaint requires a telehealth visit versus an in-person visit, ask. You can avoid an unnecessary trip or multiple appointments.

Find Out What Telehealth System Will Be Used

Will your appointment be via phone call, or will there be video? Is there an application you should download, or is it accessible via your web browser? Is this televisit covered by your insurance? Don’t be afraid to overprepare. In the end, it saves time and benefits everyone involved in the appointment.

Connect With a Plan

Telemedicine may seem less formal causing us to not be as prepared as we would for an in-person visit. Write your questions and concerns down. Just because you’re connecting virtually does not make your appointment time any less important.

Bring a Loved One

At first thought, you may see no reason why someone should accompany you to your telehealth visit; however, you still need that support. It’s okay to have someone in the room or even on camera with you. Your provider will not mind and will encourage it. Many times, emotions are high in the exam room, and we hear what our providers are saying, but we’re not really listening. Having support at your telehealth appointment ensures that you won’t be overwhelmed with trying to remember every detail. The best part is that with telehealth your loved one can join from almost anywhere in the world!

Stay Informed

Telehealth extends beyond appointments. It also includes patient portals. If you have a quick question for any member of your healthcare team, more than likely there is a system that you can use to quickly contact someone. Your patient portal can also give you easy access to results of blood tests, urinalysis, and more.

Telehealth services are likely here to stay. As you enter survivorship of your breast cancer care, annual visits can be maintained via telehealth. While in survivorship, you’ll most likely no longer be seeing multiple doctors on a regular basis for your care. With telehealth, you are able to maintain your health with one provider during survivorship without taking time off of work, finding childcare and/or sacrificing travel plans. As telehealth services continue to develop and to improve, the future of breast cancer care will steadily become more accessible.

Check out the following programs in our Breast Cancer TelemEDucation Resource Center:

What Role Does Telemedicine Play in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Care?

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What Role Does Telemedicine Play in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Care? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

In acute myeloid leukemia (AML) care, how can telemedicine be used? Watch as expert Dr. Catherine Lai shares different situations where telemedicine has served as a helpful tool and instances when in-person visits are optimal for patient care.

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Transcript:

Sasha Tanori:

My care team suggested a clinical trial for a new drug focusing on improving my lung function, fortunately, my lungs improved on their own. Dr. Lai, not every AML patient is offered a clinical trial as a care option, what advice do you have for AML patients who are seeking clinical trials, and what’s the best way to locate one?

Dr. Catherine Lai:

Yeah, so this is an area, a huge area of unmet need, I would say in general, across all oncology trials, and I think less than 10 percent of the patient population is on trials, there’s a lot of stigmas around clinical trials and are you getting…are you getting a drug that we don’t know what’s going to work, am I being…am I being tested? In oncology, I would say for the most part, we try to make trials where you’re being measured to the standard, so you’re getting the standard plus, or we’re trying not to…just in terms of doing what’s best for the patient, in general, I don’t offer trials to patients where I don’t think that there’s scientifically a rationale for those drugs, but to answer your question, the best place to look is on clinicaltrials.gov. That’s cumbersome. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, I can give you a lot of unnecessary information. There are a lot of other resources out there, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is a great resource. I know that they have online or people that you can talk to in terms of helping you direct specific clinical trials, I know depending on where you live in the country, there are other local new chapters, oncology chapters that we have that can help patients find…

And have access to clinical trials, and then I think the biggest thing is just if a patient is with the community oncologist, having enough education to say, can I have a referral to an academic institution where they can ask those questions and get that information, and local community oncologists are fantastic, but they see everything, they see breast cancer, they see one cancer where the academic centers were specialized where all I see is leukemia and MDS kind of acute leukemias. So, it’s just a different set of knowledge.

Breast Cancer TelemEDucation Tips

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Breast Cancer TelemEDucation Blog + Tips Infographic

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Lung Cancer Advocate Shares How to Optimize Your Telemedicine Visit

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Lung Cancer Advocate Shares How to Optimize Your Telemedicine Visit from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How can lung cancer patients optimize their telemedicine visits? Watch as lung cancer patient Jill shares her top tips for how to prepare for virtual visits and how to advocate for yourself when communicating for optimal care.

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Transcript:

Jill:

One thing that someone else recently mentioned to me is to be patient with the doctor who might be late, and I don’t mind actually, the doctor’s late or early. I’ve had a doctor be up to half an hour early or up to an hour late, and that doesn’t bother me, I just go on living life and doing other things while I wait for the call, but I do book a bigger chunk of time on my calendar with the expectation that doctors are really busy people and they can’t always predict how long something else will go or what would come up, so it’s good to be understanding about it for sure. 

It’s also helpful for me and a lot of people to write a list of questions, symptoms, and make sure that you get them all answered, so write them down and actually check them off, or cross them off while you’re in the appointment, because you don’t wanna walk away from there thinking, oh shoot, there was that one big question I had and some doctors are okay with getting an email or something between appointments, and some nurses are great to call, but not everyone has that opportunity. 

So, I would say, make the most of your appointment just like you would in-person. Take good care to make sure that you’re advocating for yourself, and if the doctor says words after you ask your cost your question, you don’t feel like you understood them. Don’t be embarrassed or afraid or anything… just ask again, ask for clarification. Sometimes these doctors talk in big words, and my doctor has been great, my oncologist he would like draw pictures and I ask him often to write words down for me if I don’t know how to spell them because why would I know how to spell that? I don’t have a medical and oncology degree, so there’s no shame in asking questions, asking questions is smart, and it helps make us better informed, and it’s true that a better informed and a better-informed patient is a more empowered patient, and we tend to have better outcomes, when we know what’s going on in our treatment, so take the time to ask your questions.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Lung Cancer Patient Shares Why Telemedicine Should Be a Long-Term Tool

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Lung Cancer Patient Shares Why Telemedicine Should Be a Long-Term Tool from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Can lung cancer patients look to telemedicine as a long-term tool in their care? Watch as lung cancer patient Jill explains how telehealth has been a benefit for her care and how it can serve as a benefit for other patients.

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Transcript:

Jill:

In the future, I hope that telemedicine plays a really significant role in my care and in the care of others as well, so I would really like to not have to travel to my cancer clinic for every single appointment. For some of them, I definitely want to go. There are times when we want to look our doctor or nurse in the eye and really have strong, stronger communication, but for the most part, I would rather not have to travel and I live really close to my cancer center, so I always think about people who live farther away, and there are so many people who travel hours, there are people who travel days to get to their appointments, there are people who have to leave their communities and be, away for an extended period of time, and that’s not something that I would want to do, especially when we’re in a going counter treatment, we can feel so alone and fragile, and I would rather that people had more support and other people with them could stay at home, could stay in their communities and just have a call and their people could be with them if they wanted it during the call, they can all gather around and listen to.

And I think it matters so much. It’s not just convenience, it’s better care for people to have their loved ones near them, that’s one thing we’ve learned during COVID, even more so that it’s not good to be alone. It’s good to have our loved ones near us supporting us, and so as much as possible, if we can keep telemedicine as an option to use for the times when it doesn’t really matter if we’re in person or not, let’s make that choice, let’s make second opinions available let’s work out whatever permissions need to be in place for people to get care across regional lines or state lines, let’s get those things in place so that we can provide the best care possible, and let’s always be thinking about our most vulnerable people, and those are usually the people in the rural and remote regions, the people with a really hard cancer diagnosis, the people who are feeling alone and vulnerable, let’s take it, care of them.

Understanding Telemedicine Pros and Cons for Lung Cancer Patients

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Understanding Telemedicine Pros and Cons for Lung Cancer Patients from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

What can lung cancer patients expect for telemedicine opportunities and challenges? Watch as lung cancer patient Jill shares some situations telemedicine has served well and some patients who have run into care disparities.

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Transcript:

Jill:

Telemedicine offers some opportunities as well as challenges, so I’ll speak to some of the challenges at first, which are…we don’t in-person, tend to build relationships as quickly. In general, I find when we’re just talking over the phone, when we’re in-person, we can get to know each other more comfortably, for the most part, everyone is unique, so you could be different, but for me, the relationship-building aspect is something that I’ve missed out on to some degree. 

And the doctor may miss some visual cues, so for example, there might be something that he or she would pick up on, would notice some sort of symptom or side effect that we had perhaps not noticed, we’re not, thought important enough to raise. So those are challenges. How do we get past not being able to see each other, so also, what if the doctor is delivering some tough news that could be harder to do if we’re not in-person, if we’re not able to see those visual, non-verbal cues, that can help us understand how to help the doctor understand how the patient is processing, receiving the news. Another thing is that sometimes patients, and I’m not going to say that I do this, but I’ve heard quite a few patients say that they might try to hide some of their side effects because they’re concerned that they’ll get a reduced dose and they’re concerned that it won’t be as effective. 

Now, from what I’ve heard, you know I understand that’s not a really wise choice to make, but everyone makes their own choices, and so if the patient is trying to hide the side effects from their doctor and their nurse, it might be more helpful for that patient to actually be present with their healthcare team, so the healthcare providers can actually notice and pick up on things. 

The opportunities are really powerful though, because it frees up so much more time for the system and generally, we often, I’ve had an awful lot of appointments, I know my oncologist quite well because I’ve had the same one since 2013, and we don’t need to talk for a long time, so usually 10 minutes is good and it saves the travel time in. Also, it opens up possibilities for remote consults with potentially anyone anywhere in the world, which is so terrific as an opportunity for a second opinion perhaps, or for someone who doesn’t have a doctor in their community, it makes it so much easier for them to gain access to care that they need.

And we really need to focus on the disparities that occur, especially people in rural and remote regions can miss out on some of the best healthcare. And if this is a great opportunity for us to serve them better.