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The Role of Telemedicine in Providing Thoracic Oncology Care to Remote Areas of British Columbia

  • Lung Cancer (JM Johnson, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Oncology Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of review

The purpose of this study is to review the role of telemedicine in providing oncology care; we describe our long-standing, high-volume telemedicine experience.

Recent findings

The Interior Health Thoracic Surgical Group (IHTSG) uses telemedicine, through Virtual Thoracic Surgical Clinics (VTSC), to provide service to remote patients. The IHTSG serves a population of 1.01 million people over an area of 807,538 km2 (1.3 persons/km2) in the Interior and North of British Columbia, Canada. Between 2003 and 2015, the IHTSG conducted 15,073 telemedicine patient encounters at 63 geographic sites. Telemedicine saved these patients a total travel distance of 11.5 million km—an average of 766 km per patient. VTSC supports and strengthens the Hub and Spoke model of healthcare delivery—patients residing remotely can easily access centrally delivered service.

Summary

Telemedicine makes specialized care available to all patients by overcoming a major impediment to access, namely distance.

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Acknowledgements

We thank surgeons Shaun Deen, Anand Jugnauth, Andrew Luoma, and Bill Nelems for their contributions to the thoracic surgery telemedicine program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of British Columbia, Kelowna General Hospital, 2268 Pandosy Street, Kelowna, BC, V1Y 1T2, Canada

    Michael F. Humer

  2. Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, British Columbia Cancer Agency - Centre for the Southern Interior, 399 Royal Avenue, Kelowna, BC, V1Y 5L3, Canada

    Barbara G. Campling

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  1. Michael F. Humer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael F. Humer.

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Conflict of Interest

Michael F. Humer and Barbara G. Campling declare they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Lung Cancer

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Humer, M.F., Campling, B.G. The Role of Telemedicine in Providing Thoracic Oncology Care to Remote Areas of British Columbia. Curr Oncol Rep 19, 52 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11912-017-0612-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11912-017-0612-7

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