title: Teledentistry: A Tool to Promote Continuing Education Actions on Oral Medicine for Primary Healthcare Professionals.
abstract: Difficulties in diagnosis of oral mucosal lesions are a significant cause of delayed oral cancer diagnosis, and this difficulty may be due to gaps in knowledge. This study evaluated the diagnostic skills of primary healthcare professionals regarding oral cancer and presented them with an e-learning course.
  
  
  
  Forty-seven primary healthcare professionals (32 dentists and 15 nondentists) enrolled in a 24-h course on oral medicine delivered through an e-learning platform. A test, based on 33 clinical images of oral lesions, was used to evaluate the diagnostic skills of participants. The participants were requested to classify each lesion as benign, potentially malignant, or malignant as well as to inform their clinical impression. Three specialists also took the test as the gold standard.
  
  
  
  Twenty-seven participants completed the test. Nondentists and dentists showed a comparable sensitivity of 68.8 ± 11.1 and 63.7 ± 15.8, respectively. Specialists performed somewhat better; however, the difference was not statistically significant (81.0% ± 4.1%, p = 0.16). Dentists and specialists (70.0% ± 16.6% and 95.5% ± 3.1%, respectively) showed higher specificity than nondentists (39.3 ± 20.6, p < 0.01). Nondentists had a higher number of unanswered questions (p < 0.01) for classification and clinical impression (50.0% ±45.1% and 72.0% ± 25.0%, respectively) than dentists (5.7% ±11.9% and 19.8% ± 20%, respectively). Both dentists and nondentists had low attendance in the course (44.57% ± 37.38% and 26.53% ± 26.53%, respectively, p = 0.26). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the diagnostic skills of public health workers belonging to different professional categories.
  
  
  
  Both dentists and nondentists have a fairly good capacity for discriminating the nature of oral lesions. Early squamous cell carcinoma is the most challenging situation and remains an issue to be addressed.
authors: 1 Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) , Porto Alegre, Brazil .|2 TelessaúdeRS-Graduate Program in Epidemiology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) , Porto Alegre, Brazil .
authors: Michelle
authors: M
authors: Roxo-Gonçalves
authors: 1 Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) , Porto Alegre, Brazil .
authors: Jéssica R
authors: JR
authors: Strey
authors: 3 Graduate Program in Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Universidade Luterana do Brasil (ULBRA) , Canoas, Brazil .
authors: Caren S
authors: CS
authors: Bavaresco
authors: 1 Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) , Porto Alegre, Brazil .
authors: Marco Antonio T
authors: MAT
authors: Martins
authors: 4 Centro de Especialidades Odontológicas/Estomatologia , Prefeitura Municipal de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil .
authors: Juliana
authors: J
authors: Romanini
authors: 2 TelessaúdeRS-Graduate Program in Epidemiology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) , Porto Alegre, Brazil .
authors: Carlos
authors: C
authors: Pilz
authors: 2 TelessaúdeRS-Graduate Program in Epidemiology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) , Porto Alegre, Brazil .
authors: Erno
authors: E
authors: Harzheim
authors: 2 TelessaúdeRS-Graduate Program in Epidemiology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) , Porto Alegre, Brazil .
authors: Roberto
authors: R
authors: Umpierre
authors: 1 Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) , Porto Alegre, Brazil .
authors: Manoela D
authors: MD
authors: Martins
authors: 1 Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) , Porto Alegre, Brazil .|2 TelessaúdeRS-Graduate Program in Epidemiology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) , Porto Alegre, Brazil .
authors: Vinicius C
authors: VC
authors: Carrard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003815:Dentists / Q000193:education; D004496:Education, Continuing / Q000379:methods*; D020375:Education, Distance / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D011320:Primary Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: dental education; e-learning; oral diagnosis; oral lesions; telehealth