Cancer Care in the Era of COVID-19: Changing Rules of Engagement of Social Media Applications to Support Cancer Patients

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Cancer Care in the Era of COVID-19: Changing Rules of Engagement of Social Media Applications to Support Cancer Patients in LMICs Sanjay Kumar Yadav 1

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& Ronald Kintu Luwaga & Vahagn Hambardzumyan & Nishtha Yadav & Sanjeet Kumar Jaiswal

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Received: 3 August 2020 / Accepted: 17 September 2020 # Indian Association of Surgical Oncology 2020

A patient texts a picture of his neck (Fig. 1a and b) showing no tumor from 240 miles away. Even though he could not come to hospital due to lockdown, he is able to continue his tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy with the support of a social media (SoMe) application. Another patient in Uganda sends a photograph, which aids in home-based evaluation of her postmastectomy wound (Fig. 1c). COVID-19 pandemic has been a crucial wake-up call for many high-income countries (HICs), as it has brought to the fore the fragility of their healthcare systems [1]. Yet, the situation in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) can only be left to imagination as healthcare system was already fragile here. Amidst the pandemic, care of cancer patients has suffered a substantial setback. It is now apparent that cancer and COVID19 form a deadly duo as patients having both are at very high risk of severe event [2]. Patients with cancer are at higher risk with severe events occurring in 7 (39%) of 18 patients with cancer vs 124 (8%) of 1572 patients without cancer. Hospital-based telemedicine systems are already being used to carry out continuity of care [3, 4]. Although costeffective in comparison with hospital-based follow-up, this system requires infrastructure and prior appointment. Conventional telemedicine also requires physical presence of the patient at a nearby telemedicine center. This is where social media can fill the gap by providing continuity of care without any physical visit.

* Sanjay Kumar Yadav [email protected] 1

Department of Surgery, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College, Jabalpur, India

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Mulago National Referral Hospital, Kampala, Uganda

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Central Clinical Military Hospital, Yerevan, Armenia

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Department of Radiology, NSCB Medical College, Jabalpur, India

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Department of Endocrinology, KEM Hospital, Mumbai, India

Author RKL reports that in Uganda, lockdown measures which have followed the present pandemic include cessation of public transport used by most cancer patients to attend hospital, as well as restriction of pedestrian movements. Inevitably, this has led to either increased use or adoption of alternative communications to ensure continuity of care. The health workers are now utilizing regular radio broadcasts (by Uganda Cancer Institute) to issue advice and programs to cancer patients; telephonic follow-up of patients is also on the increase and so is the use of social media platforms. WhatsApp has become the most popular application because i t i s e a s y t o le ar n a nd us e a nd o f f e r s r ea l - t i m e communication—allowing even images to be shared, in addition to the privacy it offers. This is further boosted by