Telehealth in urologic cancer: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

Author(s)Tracey L. Krupski, MD, Jeunice Owens-Walton, MD

"The use of telemedicine is heavily dependent on supportive legislature," write Tracey L. Krupski, MD, and Jeunice Owens-Walton, MD.

As technology evolves, the concept of remote delivery of medical care has been at the forefront of expanding access. During the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine became paramount, given the critical need for social distancing and increased demand for medical care despite limited resources for specialty care and oncologic surveillance.¹ Patients embraced the convenience while providers adapted to the new workflow, leading both parties to advocate for this model to be nationally implemented and permanently codified.² In this review, we outline the evolution of telemedicine and analyze how the COVID-19 pandemic propelled the understanding, quality, and delivery of remote medical care in urologic oncology.