title: Teledermatology--high technology or not?
abstract: As an alternative to attending a conventional dermatology clinic, patients had a high-resolution conventional photographic image taken by a professional medical photographer. The photographic images were viewed by a dermatologist together with referral details from the general practitioner and any other relevant information from the patient's notes. From the images, a dermatological diagnosis was derived and a management plan for each patient instituted. After treatment, histological assessment of the tumours allowed diagnostic accuracy to be determined. The preliminary diagnostic accuracy (71%) was greater than that of the referring general practitioners (49%). However, when the diagnostic ability of the method to detect the nature of malignant lesions was examined, telemedicine was able to detect malignancies in 94% of cases compared with only 70% detected by general practitioners. The results of the present study indicate that teledermatology is achievable using a low-technology, low-cost approach.
authors.affiliation: Dermatology Department, Queen Victoria Hospital, Morecambe, Lancashire, UK.
authors.forename: P V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kirby
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dickinson
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schofield
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010781:Photography; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D017216:Telemedicine; D006113:United Kingdom