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Radiation oncology face the least demand due to availability, closure of facilities, lack of connectivity and awareness, and enough investments.
FREMONT, CA: Challenges in healthcare in the U.S. result in increased cancer rates in the United States, governmental mandates for rural healthcare equity, delays in cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment, and more societal awareness for healthcare for marginalized populations.
Challenges to radiation oncology:
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Availability of radiation oncologists and physicians: Rural radiation oncologists are retiring in the next five years, and plans to replace them have yet to be implemented. Oncologists find rural areas restrictive regarding the lack of a holistic medical infrastructure. Physicians, who help radiation oncologists in the initial screening and detection, comprise a smaller section of the workforce and are distributed unevenly in rural areas. Newly trained nurses populate more well-known medical institutions leaving a gap in the availability of trained practitioners in rural centers.
Closure of facilities: Rural centers face frequent threats of foreclosure, and the pandemic has threatened most centers. Physicians and nurses are retiring and not being replaced, reducing access to treatment in rural areas. In many regions, teleservices are hampered due to unclear government regulations.
Connectivity: Services provided through digital devices are declining as certain areas lack broadband connectivity. Telemedicine is a solution to the lack of enough resources in rural areas. Telemedicine can be leveraged in rural areas, but its usability is limited due to connectivity problems.
Awareness: A lack of awareness of radiotherapy has led to misinformation and the under-utilization of a cost-effective therapy. Rural residents receive a lower quality of care where physicians do not provide enough information about treatment for them to make an informed decision.
Investments and certificate of need (CON) laws: Radiotherapy infrastructure is expensive to introduce and maintain. CON laws allowed states to regulate expenditure evenly and prevent over-expenditure that can be avoided. It mandated equitable accessibility to its infrastructure. Patients prefer states that follow CON laws to those that do not, resulting in rural areas that experience the least demand.
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