Bring the oncologist to the local clinic by video and the drug to the local pharmacy
Travel and time off work are among the biggest costs families face; if consultations happen by video, blood tests locally and oral drugs by mail, most routine visits need no journey at all.
Overview
Rural patients travel hours for a fifteen-minute review. Tele-oncology models (Australia's Townsville network, the US Veterans Health Administration) pair a remote oncologist with a local nurse or general practitioner, local laboratory draws and mail-order or local dispensing of oral drugs; infusions are given at the nearest capable site. Decentralised trial designs use the same infrastructure. Payment parity for video visits, which many payers made permanent after 2020, removes the main barrier.
- Fragmented care and guideline gaps · Patients fall between specialists, wait for referrals and often do not get the treatment guidelines say they should.
- Most of the world has almost no cancer care · Seven in ten cancer deaths happen in low- and middle-income countries, where radiotherapy, pathology, surgery and drugs are scarce.
- Trials enrol too few, too slowly · Fewer than one in ten adults with cancer joins a trial. Trials close for lack of patients, not lack of ideas.
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- IdeaScreen every patient for money trouble the way we screen for pain
Shares Financial toxicity, Fragmented care and guideline gaps.
- IdeaPatients are told which trials they qualify for at every treatment decision, in writing
Shares AI trial matching & clinical decision support, Trials enrol too few, too slowly.
- IdeaAn asynchronous expert second opinion for every new advanced-cancer diagnosis
Shares Trials enrol too few, too slowly, Fragmented care and guideline gaps.
- IdeaA global open trials operating system any hospital can plug into
Shares AI trial matching & clinical decision support, Trials enrol too few, too slowly.
- IdeaSimulate eligibility against real-world data before every protocol is locked
Shares AI trial matching & clinical decision support, Trials enrol too few, too slowly.
- IdeaNational hub-and-spoke cancer networks with defined referral tiers
Shares Fragmented care and guideline gaps, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- IdeaTreat trial enrolment as a cost lever: the sponsor pays for the drug
Shares AI trial matching & clinical decision support, Trials enrol too few, too slowly.
- IdeaPay the same for an infusion whether it is given in a hospital or a clinic
Shares Financial toxicity, Fragmented care and guideline gaps.