Tag Archive for: virtual visit

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 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.

See More From the Prostate Cancer TelemEDucation Empowerment Resource Center

Related Resources:

 

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.

How to Make the Most of a Virtual Visit

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“Well, we need to check your titer,” the doctor explained as he went over my lab results via a recent Zoom call. “Titer?” I thought. I know I’ve heard that term before, but I wasn’t really sure what it meant. The doctor reappeared the word a few more times, exacerbating my confusion. I was too embarrassed to ask what he meant; he was talking quickly. When he eventually said, “The titer is the strength of the antibodies in your blood,” I finally understood and felt more at ease.

As we face this pandemic, chronic and/or rare disease patients like myself are facing an extension of the “new normal” that everyone is experiencing firsthand. Our doctor’s appointments are critical times when we’re able to explain how we’re feeling, how our medication may or may not be working, and what the next steps are. But our visits become different when our face to face sessions turn virtual. I believe we become more vulnerable, as we invite the doctors into our home lives.

While healthcare has certainly come a long way and telemedicine has been on the horizon, virtual visits are now the norm. We have been placed, both as patient and healthcare professionals, in a position that allows us to take advantage of the technology we have and still provide and receive great care. In my opinion, these visits should not be considered a hassle, but rather an encounter that continues to focus on patient education as we face unprecedented times.

A part of patient education is health literacy. Health literacy can be defined in many ways, but the short, paraphrased version is that health literacy is the ability of patients to understand health information (verbal, visual, etc.) in order to make the best decisions about their health. This includes understanding the messages that are being conveyed to them by health professionals, including symptoms to look for and how to take medication. The case remains the same whether visits are in-person or virtual, perhaps with greater emphasis on the latter, in my opinion.

Below, I will highlight things that patients can do to make the most of their health appointment, with a focus on health literacy.

Tips for Patients

  1. Discuss any information you have questions about during your appointment, especially if it has jargon you don’t understand
  2. If a doctor speaks too quickly, tell them to slow down or repeat what they said
  3. Take notes during your appointment if having something visual helps you remember
  4. If your doctor mentions a word you’ve never heard of, ask them to define it
  5. Share your understanding of how a certain medication or treatment is helping you and/or if you think something could work better
  6. If you’re unsure of how to take a medication, show the label to your doctor to have them explain
  7. If you are provided with test results, ask your doctor to review them carefully with clear language