Cancer care requires close physical and emotional interactions, but with threats of COVID-19 infection looming, many physicians lost the personal touch to patient care, oncologist Jalal Baig, MD, wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post.
The personal elements that made patient interactions meaningful only began to return after the COVID-19 vaccines and other public health measures, Dr. Baig wrote. Even though there were many close encounters with COVID-19, Dr. Baig said the ability to stand close together, have face-to-face talks, and other types of close contact previously considered mundane have had a great impact on his practice.
"In the tumult and uncertainty of the pandemic, the one constant I can provide patients is my understanding, attention and a chair next to them," Dr. Baig wrote. "Accepting some risk of infection is how we bravely move forward in this coronavirus-altered world. Especially when trying to preserve something as sacred as the bonds that hold oncology together."