Telemedicine significantly reduced the time to biopsy, travel time, and cost for patients in an interventional radiology group compared to in-person visits, according to a study presented at the 2020 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Virtual Scientific Program.
Moreover, the investigators suggested that telemedicine for this patient population increases access to care and allows for more efficient use of physician time and resources.
Telemedicine visits included in the study were performed by a physician or advanced practice provider (PA or NP) at a single institution, academic medical center to patients at 3 Memorial Sloan Kettering regional locations in New York and New Jersey. Total patient encounters and data from November 2017 to October 2019 were assessed.
The primary outcome measures were wait time from the Interventional Radiology referral to biopsy procedure…