Use of Telemedicine to Diagnose Tinea in Kenyan Schoolchildren
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Internet-based telemedicine has the potential to alleviate the problem of limited access to healthcare in developing countries. The Mashavu project aims to deploy kiosks that transmit health data and pictures from patients in underdeveloped countries who have no immediate access to healthcare to clinics for analysis by trained personnel. To test this principle, we investigated whether dermatophytic fungal infections (tinea) could be diagnosed by Kenyan clinicians solely from pictures of the lesions. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Six physicians, five physician assistants, and five nurses from Nyeri Provincial Hospital took a test consisting of 15 pictures of potassium hydroxide (KOH) prep-confirmed tinea lesions and 15 pictures of KOH prep-negative lesions obtained from local children. RESULTS: The mean (standard deviation) sensitivity and specificity for the whole group were 73% (19%) and 83% (11%), respectively. The physicians had the highest sensitivity and specificity, although only sensitivity reached statistical significance when compared with physician assistants. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that telemedicine can be used to diagnose simple skin conditions in a low resource setting with reasonable sensitivity and specificity.
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A few developing countries (Ethiopia, South Africa and India) are successfully adopting e-Health systems.
“Studies have shown how a few developing countries (Ethiopia, South Africa and India)3,12,85,86 are successfully adopting e-Health systems.”
From Barriers and opportunities to implementation of sustainable e-Health programmes in Uganda: A literature review (2017) · cites this paper as [12]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Smith, S. E., Ludwig, J. T., Chinchilli, V. M., Mehta, K., & Stoute, J. A.
- Affiliations
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Smith, Sarah E.
- Venue
- Telemedicine and e-Health
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-03
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 166-168
- ISSN
- 1530-5627 (ISSN-L)
- 1556-3669
- OpenAlex
- W2036420871
- Semantic Scholar
- 5d70cf3eda11feff5dc49c934f144840510ee206
- Cited by
- 11
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 4 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 0.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Telemedicine Journal and e-Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Pennsylvania State University
- Penn State College of Medicine
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Nail Diseases and Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Dermatological diseases and infestations
- Keywords
- telemedicine, dermatophytosis, skin lesion diagnosis, diagnostic imaging, potassium hydroxide preparation, elementary school students, resource-limited settings, diagnostic accuracy, Kenya
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Child, Dermatology, Female, Health Personnel, Humans, Kenya, Male, Photography, Sensitivity and Specificity, Tinea, Telemedicine
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