Dr. Lavery on Achieving Safe Care for Esophagogastric Cancer During COVID-19

Anita Lavery, MD, MRCP, a medical oncology registrar at Queen’s University Belfast, discusses achieving safe care for patients with esophagogastric cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Steps are already being taken in the United Kingdom to better care for this patient population through the British Society of Gastroenterology, Lavery explains. The organization issued a report in January 2021 explaining how gastrointestinal oncologists can move forward during the pandemic, as well as improve care for patients with gastrointestinal malignancies as more individuals are vaccinated and services begin to reopen.

One of the factors under investigation is the best way to prioritize patients due to the backlog of those who require care or services. Ideally, endoscopies would have been performed earlier, therefore prioritizing, and accelerating care for these patients is important, Lavery says. Additionally, vaccinating patients who need to come to the clinic for endoscopies is another process of interest, though it has not yet been implemented, Lavery concludes.