title: A prospective study of mobile phones for dermatology in a clinical setting.
abstract: We evaluated the accuracy of diagnoses made from pictures taken with the built-in cameras of mobile phones in a 'real-life' clinical setting. A total of 263 patients took part, who photographed their own lesions where possible, and provided clinical information via a questionnaire. After the teledermatology procedure, each patient was examined face-to-face and a gold standard diagnosis was made. The telemedicine data and pictures were diagnosed by 15 dermatologists. The 299 cases contained 1-22 clinical images each (median 3). Nine dermatologists finished all the cases and the remaining six completed some of them, thus providing 2893 decisions. Overall, 61% of all cases were rated as possible to diagnose and of those, 80% were correct in comparison with the face-to-face diagnosis. Image quality was evaluated and the median was 5 on a 10-point scale. There was a significant correlation between the correct diagnosis and the quality of the photographs taken (P < 0.001). In nearly two-thirds of all cases, a teledermatology diagnosis was possible; however, there was insufficient information to make a telemedicine diagnosis in about one-third of the cases. If applied carefully, mobile phones could be a powerful tool for people to optimize their health care status.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Division of General Dermatology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Jessika
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weingast
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scheibböck
authors.forename: Elisabeth M T
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Wurm
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ranharter
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Porkert
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dreiseitl
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Posch
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Binder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D001317:Austria / Q000453:epidemiology; D040421:Cell Phone / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003880:Dermatology / Q000379:methods*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010045:Outpatients; D010781:Photography; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*