Telehealth Improved Pre-Pandemic Cancer Care Availability in US

Recent research shows that equitable cancer care access and delivery benefited highly from telehealth before the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1.7 million new cancer cases were reported in the US in 2019, along with 599,589 deaths.

The study notes that there is limited evidence regarding the use of telehealth to support equitable cancer care. To gain insight into pre-pandemic hospital efforts of providing telehealth and oncologic services, researchers conducted a retrospective cross-sectional analysis that considered geographic and sociodemographic statistics.

Using data from the 2019 American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Hospital Survey and IT Supplement, 2013 Urban Influence Codes (UIC) from the US Department of Agriculture, and 2018 Area Health Resources Files from the Health Services and Resources Administration (HRSA), researchers divided hospitals based on their telehealth and oncology services availability.

With the inclusion of 4,540 hospitals in the study, researchers engaged in geospatial mapping of access to telehealth for cancer care, making connections between sociodemographic factors, as well as county- and hospital-level access to telehealth.

Of the 4,540 hospitals, 2,054 (45.2 percent) reported they offered telehealth and oncology services, 272 (6 percent) reported they offered oncology services without telehealth, 1,369 (30.2 percent) reported they offered telehealth without oncology services, and 845 (18.6 percent) did not offer either.

When reviewing county statistics, researchers found that 1,288 of 3,152 counties, with 26.6 million residents, did not have any hospital-based access to oncology or telehealth. Data also revealed that rural hospitals offering telehealth with existing oncology services were less common than urban hospitals. 

Based on these findings, researchers concluded that despite the availability of hospital-based cancer care and telehealth throughout the US, certain patients continue to face geographic barriers to care.

"We recommend continuing to monitor the impact of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic-related policies and innovations on the availability of telehealth services for oncology care. Furthermore, improvements in data collection, and advocacy to prioritize adoption of telehealth as a critical element of cancer care, will improve health equity by decreasing disparities attributable to place of residence," they concluded.

Using telehealth to deliver cancer care is becoming more common. For example, funding from the National Cancer Institute in August 2022 led to the creation of the Northwestern Program for Scalable Telehealth Cancer Care, which aims to track smoking, obesity, and inactivity among cancer patients.

To determine the success associated with using virtual methods to track cancer patients, researchers recruited 3,000 participants to engage in remote coaching along with the tracking of the above behaviors through an app.

Further, research has shown that telehealth use could cut costs for cancer patients. A recent study found that the expansion of telehealth oncology services may have helped decrease time and travel costs among nonelderly cancer patients, with cost savings ranging between $147.4 and $186.1.