Background: The National Health Service Long Term Plan details plans to make digital interactions available to all patients in 5 years. Teleconsultations can improve access to specialist services; however, there is a lack of evidence for the use of teleconsultations in an oncology setting in the United Kingdom.
Objective: We aim to describe a service evaluation of teleconsultations for patients attending a regional brain metastases clinic. These patients have unique travel restrictions that prevent them from driving.
Methods: From April to October 2018, all patients attending the brain metastases clinic were offered the choice of teleconsultation in place of a face-to-face appointment. Feedback was assessed using a satisfaction questionnaire, and data of all clinic attendances were collected.
Results: A total of 69 individual patients had 119 appointments over the duration of the pilot, of which 36 (30.2%) were new patient appointments and 73 (61.3%) were follow-ups. Of the 69 patients, 24 (35%) took part in teleconsultations (41/119, 34.5%). User satisfaction was high, and no patients who took part in a teleconsultation reverted to face-to-face appointments. These patients avoided 2521 miles (61.6 miles per appointment) of hospital-associated travel and travel costs of £441.48 (US $599.83) to £10.78 (US $14.65) per appointment.
Conclusions: Teleconsultations appear to be acceptable in this cohort of patients with brain metastases attending a regional stereotactic radiosurgery service with the potential for significant savings in travel and expenses.
Keywords: brain metastases; mobile phone; stereotactic radiosurgery; teleconsultations; telemedicine.
©Micheal O'Cathail, Luis Aznar-Garcia, Ananth Sivanandan, Claire Diver, Poulam Patel, Pui-Shan Tang, Judith Christian. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (http://formative.jmir.org), 05.02.2021.