Conclusion
While these changes have occurred in response to the COVID pandemic,
importantly, the ultimate decisions on how to care for our head and neck
patients have still been made by our collaborative head and neck program
and the individual physicians delivering the care. As such, and with a
more limited surge of COVID cases to date in Pittsburgh, we feel we have
been able to continue to treat our HNC patients during these challenging
times adequately.
The COVID-19 pandemic will likely change health care forever. The
opportunity to use modern technology to diagnose, counsel, and improve
health care for a spectrum of patients in more broadly distributed
geographically may, at the end of the day, be the hidden benefit of this
catastrophe.