title: Plea for standardization in teledermatology: a worm's eye view.
abstract: Like any clinical interaction, teledermatology requires accurate, timely, and relevant information. The need to provide reliable, representative, diagnostic-quality images to the consultant is obvious. Predetermined patient views for a given clinical presentation and optimal hands on techniques to acquire them are not standardized. As a result, the training provided to those who take the images is inconsistent. Anecdotal evidence from the author's telemedicine practice is employed to support this contention. A formal collaboration between the telemedicine and medical photography communities is proposed to generate such standards and a relevant curriculum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Military and Emergency Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Vidmar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003479:Curriculum; D003880:Dermatology / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010781:Photography / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000592:standards*