Landmark Cancer Study Highlights Why Australia Must Embrace Telehealth

Australia has made significant strides in its bid to make telehealth a key part of its healthcare system after the service worked wonders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the Australian government is under pressure to ramp up its efforts to ensure telehealth becomes a permanent, accessible and fully funded part of healthcare.

A recent study from the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (JNCCN) highlights how effective telehealth can be. That study should serve as a call to action for Australia.

What has the JNCCN Study Revealed?

Many Australian citizens live in remote, regional or rural communities. Land-based healthcare facilities can often be difficult to access.

Australia is home to some of the best medical practitioners and facilities in the world, but not everyone experiences high-quality care. This is where telehealth comes in.

Numerous countries around the world have started adding telehealth services to their healthcare systems and the feedback has been fantastic.

For example, the Geriatric Assessment-Guided Intervention-Supportive Care programme has been a game changer in Brazil.

It was the focal point of a recent study which used a telehealth-based scheme to improve the welfare of elderly patients diagnosed with cancer in remote regions.

It is proof that distance should not determine the quality of healthcare patients receive, and Australia should be taking note.

The Brazilian research team selected 77 adults aged 65 years or older to participate in their study. Each of them was treated for metastatic solid tumours between June 2022 and July 2023.

The care providers in the study were primarily located in high-population urban areas, while most patients lived in remote or underserved parts of the country.

The care team used the programme to personalise exercise routines, mental health support, nutritional guidance and psychosocial assistance for these patients.

It took just three months for them to start making progress. There was a glaring improvement in all measured areas, including their quality of life, mood and how they understand their illness.

Brazil has a plethora of infrastructural issues, but if they can make telehealth work, Australia has no excuse.

The initiative proves that people thrive when they have access to quality care, regardless of whatever illness they are dealing with.

It also proved that telehealth is a remarkably efficient model that does not compromise the quality of care. If anything, it improves it.

What Does This Mean for Australia?

Australia already has the tools to make telehealth run on autopilot without compromising on quality care.

The same devices Australians use to shop online, work from home and talk to their families can also be used to speak to a general practitioner (GP), a psychologist or a physiotherapist.

However, patients are often wary about which telehealth services to use as not all of them deliver on the promise of quality care.

Reputable platforms such as Medicompare have simplified things, making it easier to find which companies offer the best telehealth services in Australia.

All that remains is for the Australian government to get their act together and make telehealth an integral part of how healthcare works in the country.

Telehealth was a handy lifeline when the pandemic had everyone backed into a corner. It was adopted by medical practitioners who treated patients and offered consultations over the phone to those who couldn’t safely travel in person.

It had the biggest impact on rural communities. They finally found a care package that reduced the time, cost and physical toll of travelling hundreds of kilometres for a 15-minute meeting.

But as the pandemic receded, so too did telehealth’s momentum. Many telehealth services were scaled back. Medicare rebates were reduced or restricted. 

Some services became available only for patients with an existing clinical relationship with a provider. But that’s not how you build a healthcare system for the future.

Australia must learn from the Brazilian study and invest in its telehealth services. It doesn’t mean replacing face-to-face care. There are certain conditions that cannot be treated over the phone.

But it gives Australians a different option that makes the healthcare system work for them, rather than forcing people to work around the system.