Using Telemedicine for Providing Supportive and Palliative Care Patients with Advanced Cancer during the COVID?19 Pandemic in Ukraine

Abstract

COVID‐19 has overwhelmed the capacity of health care systems, limiting access to supportive and palliative care for patients with advanced cancer. Telemedicine has emerged as a tool to provide care continuity to patients while limiting the risk of contagion. However, implementing telemedicine in resource‐limited settings is challenging. We report the results of a multidisciplinary patient‐navigator‐led telemedicine supportive care program in Dnipro City. One‐hundred sixty‐five telemedicine interventions were provided to 50 patients (median age 67, 47% female). A quarter of the patients had less than or equal to elementary school education, and 18% lived in a rural area. The most common interventions were psychological care (30%), pain and symptom control (27%), and nutritional counseling (10%). Half of the interventions were provided by video conferencing. The most common patient‐reported barrier was limited experience using communication technology. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of providing supportive and palliative care interventions using telemedicine in resource‐limited settings.