Imagine having cancer and being told that most of your treatment will happen in your home instead of a high-tech cancer center. That may sound preposterous, but it’s closer to happening than you might think.
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Just as telemedicine is dramatically changing how primary care is delivered, much of cancer treatment can be delivered safely, effectively, and less expensively at home. As we wrote recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, cancer care at home could yield equal or higher-quality cancer care and greater patient satisfaction at lower cost than traditional care in a hospital or physician’s office.
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Successful models exist internationally, and the building blocks are already in place in the United States. For example, hospital at home programs, in which hospital-level medical care is provided in a patient’s home, have been fielded for skin infections, pneumonia, and other non-cancer illnesses.
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It’s time to reimagine the role of hospitals and outpatient clinics in cancer care. Rather than being the routine site of care, hospitals and outpatient clinics should be reserved for the minority of cancer patients who require treatments that only hospitals and clinics can give.
Read full, original post: Cancer treatment at home is safe, effective, and closer to happening than you think
