Delivering global cancer care: An international study of medical oncology workload.

e18080Background: With a disproportionate global burden of cancer, access to care in low-middle income countries (LMICs) is a pressing issue. To our knowledge there is no literature that has described medical oncology (MO) workload in the global context. Here, we report the first results of an international study of global MO training, infrastructure and workload. Methods: A multinational panel of oncologists from diverse practice settings designed a 51 item online survey. The survey was distributed through a snowball method via national oncology societies to chemotherapy-prescribing physicians in 50 countries. Countries were classified into low or low-middle (LMIC), upper-middle (UMIC) and high-income countries (HIC) based on World Bank criteria. Due to small numbers, African nations were reported as a region. The primary objective of this study was to describe the annual number of new cancer patient consults seen per oncologist. Results: 708 physicians completed the survey; 14% (96/708) from LMICs, 21% ...