When telehealth became more popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, patients with cancer told Dr. Krupal B. Patel that the option to meet with their clinicians vitually saved them time and money. Later, Patel and his team conducted research that verified that there is, indeed, a cost savings associated with virtual cancer visits.
The researchers analyzed the costs of more than 11,000 patients with cancer who were under the age of 65 and treated at a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center between April 2020 and June 2021. They analyzed cost of travel and loss of income from the time spent at medical appointments.
On average, the total cost savings from telehealth compared with traditional in-person visits ranged from $147.40 to $178.10 per visit. Of note, these numbers could also be higher or lower for each individual based on how far they must travel to their appointment (on average it was about three hours roundtrip), how much money it costs to drive there and their personal income, Patel noted.
當遠距醫療在 COVID-19 大流行期間變得越來越流行時，癌症患者告訴 Krupal B. Patel 博士，與臨床醫生會面的選擇實際上為他們節省了時間和金錢。後來，帕特爾和他的團隊進行的研究證實，虛擬癌症就診確實可以節省成本。研究人員分析了 2020 年 4 月至 2021 年 6 月期間在美國國家癌症研究所指定的癌症中心接受治療的 11,000 多名 65 歲以下癌症患者的費用。他們分析了旅行費用和所花費時間的收入損失在醫療預約。平均而言，與傳統的面對面就診相比，遠程醫療每次可節省 147.40 美元至 178.10 美元的總成本。值得注意的是，每個人的這些數字也可能更高或更低，這取決於他們必須前往約會的距離（平均往返約三個小時）、開車去那裡要花多少錢以及他們的個人收入
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