To describe rates of telehealth utilization across prostate cancer management groups before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and examine patient characteristics associated with telehealth utilization among Veterans diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Approach:
Data Source: Retrospective observational cohort study using electronic medical record data from the VHA’s Corporate Data Warehouse from 2016 to 2023.
Study Population: Identified Veterans with a new diagnosis of prostate cancer from January 1, 2016, to January 31, 2023, excluding those who died within a year of diagnosis or had incomplete data.
Defining Outpatient Encounters: Gathered outpatient visits related to urologic and oncologic care post-diagnosis, classifying them as phone visits and video visits.
Patient Characteristics: Assessed variables including age, race, marital status, rurality, smoking history, BMI, and disability percentage.
Key Findings:
Prostate cancer has the third highest incidence rate globally and is the most common non-skin cancer among males in the US.
Telehealth has shown potential to enhance access to care and reduce costs, yet its adoption has been slow until the COVID-19 pandemic.
The VHA provides a unique platform to study telehealth utilization among Veterans with prostate cancer due to its equal-access system.
Interpretation:
Limitations:
The study is limited to data from the VHA, which may not be generalizable to other healthcare systems.
Potential biases in self-reported data for race and ethnicity.
by Amin Nakhostin-Ansari, Zain Khera, Daniel Becker, Navid Dardashti, Stacy Loeb, Danil Makarov, Andrew Nicholson, Stephanie L. Orstad, Jerry Thomas, Leah L. Zullig, Scott E. Sherman
