title: E-mail-based oral medicine consultation.
abstract: A pilot study was undertaken to assess whether text-based electronic patient data transmission (e-mail) is a reliable source of information for the diagnostic decision-making process. The main objective was to determine if information contained within a transmitted text could be reliably used as basis for making general recommendations for diagnostic tests and follow-up or referral plans pertaining to a variety of oral mucosal pathologic conditions. The results suggest that face-to-face patient examination is more accurate in establishing a correct diagnosis for oral mucosal pathologies than transmitted descriptive patient data alone.
authors.affiliation: University of California at Los Angeles School of Dentistry, USA.
authors.forename: F S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Younai
authors.forename: D V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Messadi
mesh_terms: D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003657:Decision Making; D003792:Dental Records; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015588:Observer Variation; D019242:Oral Medicine; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D019114:Remote Consultation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D013223:Statistics as Topic