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Telehealth in hematopoietic cell transplantation: perspective from patients at a public hospital in Brazil

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 57, pages 1735–1736 (2022)Cite this article

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Hematopoietic Cell Transplant (HCT) is a potential curative treatment for hematological diseases. Patients undergoing HCT are usually immunosuppressed and require frequent outpatient visits. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we faced the challenge of providing medical care for HCT patients while preventing environmental exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Our HCT team (i.g., physicians, nurses, pharmacists, a dietician, and a social worker) started performing telehealth using a HIPAA-compliant Google Meet-based institutional platform or telephone calls in March/2020. To evaluate the feasibility of using this strategy as a permanent tool, we sent out a survey to HCT recipients to better understand their opinion on and early experience with telehealth.

All patients actively enrolled at our HCT Outpatient Clinic declared they could be reached through Whatsapp®, either on their own or a close contact’s smartphone. We had been using that platform for clinic appointments and non-medical information before the COVID-19 pandemic. We sent out a questionnaire on Google Forms containing a few questions regarding barriers to commute to clinic, access to internet, experience and feelings about the use of telehealth at our outpatient clinic and their incipient experience with it (main survey). Participants were instructed to answer the questions from the patient’s perspective, regardless of if the survey was filled out by the patients themselves or caregivers. The questionnaire was anonymous, written in Portuguese, and remained open from August 3rd to October 10th, 2020. The survey invitation was sent out to 401 auto or allogeneic HCT recipients who had been seen in clinic over the last 12 months. Following the main survey, an accompanying questionnaire was sent out to better comprehend the socioeconomic profile of patients. A concomitant survey was sent to healthcare providers that work in the transplant clinic.

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Data available on request from the authors.

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Acknowledgements

Priscila Musqueira sent the questionnaires to patients and health care providers.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Ana Cordeiro, Giancarlo Fatobene.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Investigação Médica (LIM) 31, Serviço de Hematologia, Hemoterapia e Terapia Celular, Hospital das Clínicas HCFMUSP, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Ana Cordeiro, Giancarlo Fatobene, Livia Mariano & Vanderson Rocha

  2. Hematology Department, ACCamargo Cancer Center, São Paulo, Brazil

    Ana Cordeiro

  3. Hospital Vila Nova Star–Rede D’Or, São Paulo, Brazil

    Giancarlo Fatobene & Vanderson Rocha

  4. Centro Paulista de Oncologia – Oncoclinicas, São Paulo, Brazil

    Livia Mariano

  5. Churchill Hospital, Oxford, Department of Hematology, Oxford University Hospitals, Oxford, UK

    Vanderson Rocha

Authors
  1. Ana Cordeiro
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  2. Giancarlo Fatobene
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  3. Livia Mariano
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  4. Vanderson Rocha
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Contributions

AC and GF conceived the questionnaires, acquired data and wrote the paper. LM conceived the questionnaire and reviewed the paper. VR reviewed the paper. All authors approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ana Cordeiro.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Cordeiro, A., Fatobene, G., Mariano, L. et al. Telehealth in hematopoietic cell transplantation: perspective from patients at a public hospital in Brazil. Bone Marrow Transplant 57, 1735–1736 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-022-01782-8

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