Telehealth outperformed in-person visits for cancer care, Moffitt Cancer Center finds

Tampa, Fla.-based Moffitt Cancer Center researchers found telehealth consistently outperformed in-person visits for access to care and provider response.

The study, published in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, analyzed Press Ganey survey responses from 39,268 patients across more than 50,000 visits. Of respondents, 5,950 had telehealth visits and 33,318 had in-person visits. Surveys were compared between April 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021.

Here are four study findings:

1. More participants rated their access to care as highly satisfying in telehealth than in-person (75.8 percent vs. 62.5 percent).
   
   
2. Care provider concern and response satisfaction was higher for telehealth than in-person visits (90.7 percent vs. 84.2 percent).
   
   
3. There were no significant changes over time for either category.
   
   
4. The telehealth group consisted of more females (50.2 percent), more white non-Hispanic patients (85.4 percent), more Medicare patients (65.6 percent), and more follow-up patients (78.7 percent), compared to the in-person group (51.6 percent male, 82.6 percent white non-Hispanic, 63.2 percent Medicare patients, 66.6 percent follow-up patients).