Patient Perceptions Around Quality of Care Through Telemedicine in Neuro-Oncology

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:

I. To evaluate the patient-perceived quality of care by group (telemedicine versus in-person visits) in patients with central nervous system (CNS) cancer.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To characterize the visits provided by telemedicine compared to those in-person.

II. To contrast the average time spent on telemedicine visits compared to in-person visits, and the delay between visit order placement and visit occurring.

III. To evaluate the domains of patient care addressed on a telemedicine visit versus in-person visit per documentation, including (1) treatment planning, (2) symptom burden, (3) goals of care.

IV. To evaluate frequency of acute care sought (through emergency room or urgent care clinic) within 30 days of encounter in telemedicine visit versus (vs) in-person visit.

V. The impact of patient and clinical characteristics on perceived quality of care in the context of covariate-adjusted modeling.

OUTLINE:

Patients complete a survey related to their perceived quality of care via telephone and have their medical chart reviewed prospectively.

Inclusion criteria

• Patients with a CNS tumors: this includes patients with primary brain tumors, brain metastases, and leptomeningeal disease
• Established patients with a follow up encounter with Neuro-Oncology at the Brain and Spine Center at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; this encounter can be

• An in-person visit
• A telemedicine appointment

Exclusion criteria

• Encounter occurred with the assistance of official language translation support
• Patients with telephone encounters (without interactive video)
• New patient or consult visits
• Neither patient nor caregiver present during the visit are available or able to answer survey questions