Organization of telemedicine consultations for primary patients as a stage of routing in cancer care system.

The use of new information technologies to optimize the routing of oncology patients is one of the key tasks in healthcare of Russian Federation. Implementing telemedicine technology at various stages of routing oncology patients not only significantly improves the quality of medical care in oncology but also accelerates the process of diagnosis and the initiation of treatment for oncology patients. Purpose: evaluation of oncology patient routing using telemedicine consultations (TMC). Materials and methods. The study used analytical data obtained in the medical information system of oncology centre in the Sverdlovsk region and the regional oncological system ONCOR. In the course of the study, an assessment was made of the impact of the introduction of TMC for all primary patients sent to the oncological dispensary for the first time on compliance with the timing of routing of oncological patients, on the completeness of patient examination in accordance with clinical recommendations and the Program of state guarantees, on the number of patient visits to the oncological dispensary from the moment of the first visit to the appointment of specialized antitumor treatment. Findings. Using a TMC before the first visit to the oncology clinic allowed most patients to prevent an extra visit to obtain information about the need for further examination. The number of requests related to the need for frequent visits to the dispensary has decreased, which is difficult given the size of the Sverdlovsk region.