Telemedicine Versus In-Person Follow-up for Cancer Pain Management: An Equity and Cost Analysis Comparison Using a Prospective Quasi-Experimental Design

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, with approximately 18.1 million new cases and 9.6 million deaths reported in 2018. Cancer-related pain is experienced by 50-70% of patients, with a higher prevalence at advanced disease stages (66.4%). Since the development of WHO's cancer pain guidelines, several studies have reported good relief of symptoms and suffering for a majority of patients. Recent reports suggest that up to 50% of patients still report insufficient pain control. Patients with cancer often present with multiple symptoms and functional decline. Evidence supports multidisciplinary approaches to address symptoms and suffering, including early palliative care referral

From review literatures we found that the telemedicine group had significantly higher quality of life than the usual care group. In addition, the telemedicine group had lower anxiety and depression scores than the usual care group.

Therefore, we will conduct the non-randomized controlled study of using telemedicine comparing to conventional in-person at OPD in hospitalized cancer pain patients.

The purpose of this study is to assess the pain interference by using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and to compare between the in-person group and the telemedicine group. To assess the cost-effectiveness of telemedicine for reducing symptoms associated with cancer and its treatment.