Globally, rural and remote communities face later diagnosis, social disadvantage and long distances to specialist care. In North Queensland, for example, Mount Isa is more than 900 km from Townsville. Patients must weigh the burden of travel and time away from family and community against the benefit of treatment. Distance is also a major barrier to clinical trial participation.
For more than a decade, the Townsville tele-oncology network has made videoconsultation and remote supervision of systemic therapy part of routine care. Under the Queensland Remote Chemotherapy Supervision (QReCS) model, local nurses and doctors give most regimens at rural sites, supervised by a tertiary oncologist via telehealth. Treating patients closer to home has, in turn, built capacity at rural sites, with upskilled multidisciplinary teams supporting care locally. First Nations patients and health workers value being able to keep family and community involved in care. The Australasian Teletrial Model applies the same networked approach to clinical trials.
Tele-oncology is a low-cost, common-sense and scalable way to improve access to cancer care worldwide. This talk shares the North Queensland experience and transferable principles for resource-variable settings across the Indo-Pacific.