HOW TO READ DATA
This interactive data visualization tool aims to identify opportunities for adopting decentralized oncology clinical trials in the United States. In principle, study design stakeholders could identify regions (counties) in the United States with a relatively high number of oncology patients and a relatively low number of oncology-related medical experts. Since having a reliable internet connection is one of the most fundamental requirements for participating in a decentralized clinical trial, broadband internet coverage is also one of the variables we used to assess the potential for implementing decentralized trials across the USA.
- Number of oncology patients/county – represented by orange bubble per each US county. The size of a bubble visually indicates the number of oncology patients. Upon hovering over it, a descriptive textbox appears. The textbox contains the name of the US county and respective US state, the number of people in the county that do not have broadband internet access (as well as the percentage of the county that is not covered with broadband internet access), the number of oncology patients, number of oncologists, and number of oncologists that offer telemedicine services. The “oncology patients” refer to oncology patients registries from 2015 to 2019 provided by statecancerprofiles.cancer.gov.
- “Oncology site” dropdown menu allows filtering the data based on a particular cancer type. Selection within the dropdown menu will affect the map.
- “Broadband access” – one of the two color views for the map. If selected, this view will color the US counties in a blue gradient – lighter blue indicates counties with low internet coverage and darker blue indicates counties with high internet coverage. According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), “the definition of broadband internet is a minimum of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds.”
- “Oncologists available” – second color view for the map. If selected, this view will color the US counties in a blue gradient – lighter blue indicates counties with fewer registered oncology-related doctors, and darker blue indicates counties with more oncology-related doctors. The number of “oncology-related doctors” refers to the number of registered hematology, gynecological, surgical, radiation and medical oncologists at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services database, last updated on May 4th, 2023.