These past months of the COVID pandemic have given us ample opportunity to reflect on the US health care system. Despite overwhelming tragedy, it is an opportunity for us to learn and to change. As we postpone routine visits because of the pandemic, we worry about risks for patients who delay cancer screening. We use cervical cancer screening and prevention as an example of how we can use some “lessons learned” from the pandemic to prevent “collateral losses,” such as an increase in cancers. COVID-related health system changes, like the more rapid evaluation of diagnostic tests and vaccines, the transition to compensated virtual care for most counseling and education visits, and broadened access to home services all offer potential benefits to the delivery of cervical cancer screening and prevention. While we detail the case for cervical cancer prevention, many of the issues discussed are generalizable to other preventative measures. It would be a tragedy if the morbidity and mortality of COVID is multiplied because of additional suffering caused by delayed or deferred cancer screening and diagnostic evaluation—but maybe with creativity and reflection, we can use this pandemic to improve care.

中文翻译：

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COVID如何改善护理：重新思考宫颈癌的预防。

在过去几个月中，COVID大流行给了我们充足的机会来反思美国的医疗体系。尽管发生了巨大的悲剧，但这仍然是我们学习和改变的机会。由于大流行而导致我们推迟例行就诊时，我们担心延迟癌症筛查的患者面临的风险。我们以宫颈癌的筛查和预防为例，说明如何利用大流行中的一些“经验教训”来预防“附带损失”，例如癌症的增加。与COVID相关的卫生系统的变化，例如对诊断测试和疫苗的更快速评估，对大多数咨询和教育就诊的有偿虚拟护理的过渡以及扩大的家庭服务渠道，这些都为宫颈癌筛查和预防提供了潜在的好处。虽然我们详细介绍了预防子宫颈癌的案例，但是讨论的许多问题都可以推广到其他预防措施。如果由于癌症筛查和诊断评估延迟或推迟而导致的额外痛苦使COVID的发病率和死亡率成倍增加，那将是一个悲剧。但也许可以通过创造力和反思，我们可以利用这种大流行病改善护理。