Electronic Medical Record-Assisted Telephone Follow-Up of Breast Cancer Survivors During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Single Institution Experience

Abstract

Purpose: The COVID-19 outbreak rapidly became a public health emergency and led to radical changes in patient management. From the start of the pandemic, we used electronic medical record-assisted telephone follow-up (E-TFU) of cancer survivors (CS) to minimize hospital exposure. The aim of this prospective study was to assess how breast cancer survivors (bCSs) perceived E-TFU.

Materials and methods: A 15-item survey was e-mailed to bCSs who had been managed with E-TFU. The responses were measured using Likert-like scales and were correlated with the main characteristics of the bCS using Pearson's test.

Results: One hundred thirty-seven of 343 bCSs (40%) completed the survey between March 9 and June 2, 2020. Their median age was 59 years. Although 80.3% of bCSs were satisfied with E-TFU, only 43.8% would like to have E-TFU in the future. A low educational level was correlated with higher COVID-19-related anxiety (P = .025). An older age (P = .002) and a low educational level (P < .0001) were correlated with the need to be accompanied to reach the hospital. A personal history of second cancer was inversely correlated with understanding medical advice (P = .015) and the expectation of feeling relief after a follow-up visit (P = .0027). Furthermore, pandemic phase II was correlated with satisfaction with E-TFU (P = .010).

Conclusion: E-TFU was an important means of avoiding hospital contacts during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the majority of bCSs in the survey were satisfied with this procedure. Further studies are needed to investigate the implementation of telemedicine even outside an emergency situation.