Telehealth Involves More Than Making a Phone Call, Says Oncology Consultants’ Wagner

Not every technology is a good fit for every person, and we’ve found through health equity initiatives that the search for the right telehealth modality is never ending, explained Oncology Consultants of Houston’s Susan Sabo-Wagner, MSN, RN, OCN, executive director of clinical strategy, in this interview from our recent Institute for Value-Based Medicine event that took place in New York City on February 8.

Transcript

How can community oncologists and health care providers facilitate telehealth access for those whose care may be hindered by social determinants of health?

I think that the best thing that all providers can do is to continue to search and seek the right technology, because not every technology fits every person. And what we’ve known through health equity initiatives is that every person out there, in rural areas and otherwise, they don’t have access to internet, they don’t have access to good phone technology. So continuing that search for the right product.

And then continuing to have access in those areas. So if telehealth is not something that is as good or even an opportunity in an area to even have days—even if it’s half a day or a whole day in an area that really could be serviced by a provider physically being there. But I think that the search for the right telehealth modality is never-ending, and I think that as soon as we find something that isn’t just a phone call, I think that we’ll be onto something for real.