cancer care. Abstract: Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication in order to offer healthcare mainly aimed at eliminating the access and distance barriers and make healthcare readily accessible to the rural population. One such branch of the telemedicine is the tele oncology that deals with managing cancer in the rural areas where healthcare accessibility remains a major concern. This paper brings about how teleoncology is much more than avoiding to travel long distances for treatment. It examines how teleoncology plays a role in improvising cost effectiveness, reducing waiting times, improving clinical outcomes. The paper would also discuss where tele oncology currently stands in managing cancer care and its scope for future improvements. Introduction: Many centers around the world have adopted the model of teleoncology to promote cancer care to disadvantaged and rural communities. In regions like northwestern Ontario, only a handful of oncologists exists, as a result, patients have no other choice but to travel long distances to seek expert opinion, treatment, follow ups. Smaller communities lack the financial base required for such service. Many of the rural and remote communities are First Nation reserves, and a number of these northern aboriginal communities have only seasonal road access in winter or none at all. Long winters, bad weather, travelling cost, accommodation cost are some of the obstacles faced by the patients which add to their woes apart from the cancer disease they are suffering from. Teleoncology could be a tangible and
probable solution to all these problems. In
general, its main benefits are assumed to be able to receive the cancer care without the dire need of patients and their families to travel miles which is expensive, leads to despair, and affects not only the patients suffering but also their families involved. However, it is strongly argued that avoiding the expensive travel for the patients is not the only benefit that such model brings in but it also adds to the effectiveness to the entire rural health system. The technology: Data in teleoncology may occur in two ways- store and forward or asynchronous that involves the exchange of pre-recorded data between two or more parties at different times, and the other mode is the synchronous where it is mandatory to have the involved individuals to be simultaneously present for immediate exchange of information, as in the case of videoconferencing. To promote security, data may be supplied in Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) format or any other encrypted format. A teleoncology service introduced at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Science Centre (TBRHSC) in 2001 as part of the overall Telehealth program in Ontario. The telehealth equipment used by the TBRHSC network was provided by Tandberg and Adcom and specifically designed for ease of use by the NORTH Network (now a component of the Ontario Telemedicine Network). The actual connectivity was provided by Smart Systems for health (an Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care agency) and Bell Canada. The carrier class is Polycom MGC-100 Video Conferencing Bridge. The NORTH Network uses Internet Protocol (IP) videoconferencing to deliver services. Smart Systems for Health provides this secure, private bandwidth to all hospital sites and to K-Net (the information technology arm of