Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40233294›Full record

ArticleJCO oncology practice2025

Quality of Care in Veterans Affairs Health Care System In-Person and National TeleOncology Service-Delivered Care.

Leah L Zullig, Amy S Jeffreys, Whitney Raska, Gina C McWhirter, Vida Passero, Daphne R Friedman, Haley Moss, Maren Olsen, Hollis J Weidenbacher, Scott E Sherman and 1 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in JCO oncology practice, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Leah L ZulligCenter of Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation, Durham VA Health Care System, Durham, NC.ORCID 0000-0002-6638-409X
Amy S JeffreysCenter of Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation, Durham VA Health Care System, Durham, NC.ORCID 0000-0001-9565-248X
Whitney RaskaDepartment of Veterans Affairs, National Oncology Program, Washington, DC.
Gina C McWhirterDepartment of Veterans Affairs, National Oncology Program, Washington, DC.
Vida PasseroVA Pittsburgh Health Care System, Pittsburgh, PA.ORCID 0000-0003-4101-4292
Daphne R FriedmanDepartment of Veterans Affairs, National Oncology Program, Washington, DC.ORCID 0000-0002-2938-5704
Haley MossHematology-Oncology, Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Durham, NC.ORCID 0000-0002-0563-1579
Maren OlsenCenter of Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation, Durham VA Health Care System, Durham, NC.
Hollis J WeidenbacherCenter of Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation, Durham VA Health Care System, Durham, NC.
Scott E ShermanVA New York Harbor Healthcare System, New York, NY.
Michael J KelleyDepartment of Veterans Affairs, National Oncology Program, Washington, DC.ORCID 0000-0001-9523-6080

Funding

Telehealth Research and Innovation for Veterans with Cancer (THRIVE)P50CA271358 · NCI · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · PI DANIL V. MAKAROV, Scott E Sherman · 2022 to 2026
$6.9M
HSRD VA CIN 13-410NCI NIH HHS P50 CA271358
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeThe Veterans Affairs Health Administration (VA) has experience using telehealth (TH) to deliver care to 10 million enrolled Veterans for many clinical care needs. The VA National TeleOncology Service (NTO) was established in 2020 to provide specialized cancer services regardless of geography. We sought to compare quality in TH-delivered cancer services with traditional (TR) in-person VA care.

methodsUsing electronic health record data, we identified patients with an International Classification of Diseases-10 diagnostic code for an incident malignancy from December 2016 to March 2021 at early adopting sites providing both TR and TH care. We classified patients as TH users if they received TH services at least once for their cancer care. We gathered demographic, clinical, and treatment characteristics to calculate 25 Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI) measures in the symptoms and toxicity management (two), end of life and palliative care (10), and core measure domains (13). We report disease-specific measures, QOPI measures descriptively, and performed chi-square tests to compare TH and TR.

resultsWe identified 972 patients with lymphoma, prostate, lung, or colorectal cancer. In all, 427 (44%) were TH users. Patients were predominately White (n = 819, 84.3%) men (n = 930, 95.7%). Across 25 QOPI measures, TH users received better (n = 12), worse (n = 10), the same (n = 2), and unevaluable (n = 1) descriptive performance. Appropriate tobacco cessation support within the previous year was higher in TH (85.3%

conclusionVA is a leader in TH cancer care because of both its volume and quality. VA-provided TH cancer care quality is similar to or better than that of TR in-person care. NTO specifically, and VA teleoncology broadly, provides another option to Veterans for cancer care.

Indexed as

Medical OncologyNeoplasmsQuality of Health CareTelemedicineAgedFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedUnited StatesUnited States Department of Veterans AffairsVeterans

Identifiers

PMID40233294
PMCPMC12354249

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
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Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.