Using a Collaborative, Virtual Discussion Platform to Mobilize Oncologic Expertise for the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 is a rapidly emerging worldwide pandemic that has drastically changed health care across the United States. Oncology patients are especially vulnerable. Novel point-of-care resources may be useful to rapidly disseminate peer-reviewed information from oncology experts nationwide. We describe our initial experience with distributing this information through a private, curated, virtual collaboration question-and-answer (Q&A) platform for oncologists.

The Q&A database was queried for a 2-month period from March 12 to May 12, 2020. We collected the total number of views and unique viewers for the questions. We classified the questions according to their emphasis (practice management, clinical management, both) and disease type across radiation oncology, medical oncology, gynecologic oncology, and pediatric oncology.

Seventy-nine questions were approved, 67 of which were answered and generated 49,494 views with 5,148 unique viewers. Most discussions covered clinical management, with breast cancer being the most active disease site. Ten questions covered pediatric oncology and gynecologic oncology. Forty-seven percent of the 11,010 users of the platform visited the website during the 2-month period.

Discussions on the Q&A platform reached a substantial number of oncologists throughout the nation and may help oncologists to modify their treatment in real time with the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic.