Background: As a result of technological developments in healthcare services, telemedicine is becoming widespread. We aimed to determine the effect of COVID-19 on Turkish medical oncologists' opinions of telemedicine through a survey.
Methods: This study was conducted using an online questionnaire linked to an invitation e-mail sent to the members of the Turkish Medical Oncology Association mailing group between May and July 2020.
Results: Of the 110 (73 males and 37 females) medical oncologists who answered the questionnaire, the average age was 43.9 ± 7.29 (range: 31-64) years, and the majority of the respondents were academics. The most commonly used telemedicine method was store and forward (69.7%). Telemedicine use during clinical visits and multidisciplinary councils increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic (p < 0.001 in both cases).
Conclusion: The use of telemedicine increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the pandemic has led oncologists to view telemedicine more positively.
Keywords: Cancer; Medical oncology; Telehealth; Telemedicine; Teleoncology.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.