Wade Swenson, Medical Oncologist and Hematologist at Rural Cancer Institute, Professor of Internal Medicine at Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University, Presidential Leadership Scholar, shared a post by ASCO on LinkedIn, adding:
“Telehealth in oncology is no longer an experiment. For patients in rural communities, it has become a lifeline. And the evidence supports it.
I was honored to co-author a piece in American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Daily News with my colleague and friend Joshua Pritchett (Mayo Clinic), on telemedicine in oncology.
Our argument, in brief: the clinical case is settled. What remains unresolved is the policy framework needed to embed telehealth equitably and permanently into cancer care.
This matters most at the margins – for patients at critical access hospitals like Lakewood Health System, for communities without an oncologist within 100 miles, for rural Americans who face higher cancer mortality not because the medicine doesn’t exist, but because the system wasn’t built with them in mind.
Policy uncertainty around Medicare telehealth flexibilities, audio-only coverage, and interstate licensure isn’t an administrative nuisance. It’s a barrier to care. Every time Congress extends temporary waivers instead of making them permanent, patients and providers are forced to plan around uncertainty.
The technology is ready. The patients are ready. What we need now is policy that catches up.
Grateful for the ASCO platform and for Josh’s partnership on this work.”
Quoting American Society of Clinical Oncology‘s (ASCO) post:
“Six years on from the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine continues to deliver effective cancer care. Patients prefer it in many settings, and the data support its integration. The central question has shifted from whether telemedicine belongs in oncology to whether the field will commit to the policy advocacy and practice changes required to sustain it. Read more from Dr. Wade Swenson and Dr. Joshua Pritchett for ASCO Daily News.”
Other articles featuring Wade Swenson and Joshua Pritchett on OncoDaily.