Short abstract
This letter to the editor responds to recent advice related to delivering difficult news via telemedicine, further encouraging productive discussions on this challenging topic.
We would like to thank Dr. Calton for her insightful letter. The main goal of our editorial was to encourage productive discussion regarding this challenging topic of breaking bad news via telemedicine. The unexpected COVID‐19 pandemic forced many institutions and individual clinicians to implement telemedicine, often without time for appropriate preparations and education. We fully agree that the SPIKE's protocol can be adapted for breaking bad news via telemedicine, and Dr. Calton provides a very practical and rational approach to the problem. We have developed methodological instructions for our medical stuff while breaking bad news via telemedicine and are currently implementing this through a unique interactive workshop, based on live simulations.
Our methodology is based on the SPIKE model, with some necessary modifications. For example, for setting, we contact the patient in advance, recommend solving all technical problems, and encourage adding participants. For perception, we recommend the physicians to actively try to understand the patient's feelings regarding the new reality with the COVID‐19 situation (social isolation, financial problems, etc.) before focusing on the cancer to estimate the gap between the bad news and his worries. For invitation, we recommend maintaining unspoken communication by giving the patients a few seconds of silence after the bad news delivery.
As we stated in our commentary, “It is therefore essential to build and implement tools for the new era of breaking bad news using digital media.” The letter of Dr. Calton is definitely an important step in this direction.
Disclosures
The authors indicated no financial relationships.
In Reply
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Reference
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