Teleoncology uptake in British Columbia.

Telehealth enables the delivery of specialized health care to patients living in isolated and remote regions. The purpose of this analysis is to determine the current uptake of teleoncology in mainland British Columbia. Patient appointment data was extracted from the Cancer Agency Information System (CAIS) for the 2009 calendar year. Three types of practitioners used teleoncology in 2009: Medical Oncologists, Genetic Counsellors and Medical Geneticists. In total, 712 telehealth encounters were conducted; Medical Oncologists conducted 595 encounters (83.6%), Genetic Counsellors conducted 112 encounters (15.7%) and Medical Geneticists conducted 5 encounters (0.7%). The most common oncology appointments were Gastro-Intestinal (11.4%) and Lymphoma (11.0%) follow-up appointments with a Medical Oncologist. Telehealth encounters were conducted by 46 individual health care providers however, a single Medical Oncologist conducted 418 encounters and this accounts for more than half (58.7%) of all telehealth appointments in 2009. Radiation Oncologists on the mainland up to this point are not using the technology. The Local Health Areas with the highest number of oncology telehealth appointments were: Kamloops: 203 encounters (34.1%), Penticton: 84 encounters (14.1%), Cranbrook: 58 encounters (9.7%) and the Southern Okanagan: 33 encounter (5.5%). Use of telehealth in rural and remote areas of BC is limited and there is significant room for growth. Further research will be required to identify barriers and restrictions to the use of telehealth in order to increase teleoncology adoption in British Columbia.