Trial of low-cost teledermatology in primary care
Abstract
We examined the feasibility of a low-cost, store-and-forward teledermatology service for general practitioners (GPs) in regional Queensland. Digital pictures and a brief case history were transmitted by email. A service coordinator carried out quality control checks and then forwarded these email messages to a consultant dermatologist. On receiving a clinical response from the dermatologist, the service coordinator returned the message to the referring GP. The aim was to provide advice to rural GPs within one working day. Over six months, 63 referrals were processed by the teledermatology service, covering a wide range of dermatological conditions. In the majority of cases the referring doctors were able to treat the condition after receipt of email advice from the dermatologist; however, in 10 cases (16%) additional images or biopsy results were requested because image quality was inadequate. The average time between a referral being received and clinical advice being provided to the referring GPs was 46 hours. The number of referrals in the present study, 1.05 per month per site, was similar to that reported in other primary care studies. While the use of low-cost digital cameras and public email is feasible, there may be other issues, for example remuneration, which will militate against the widespread introduction of primary care teledermatology in Australia.
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Conventional digital cameras have been demonstrated to be good enough to achieve high image quality.
“Conventional digital cameras have been demonstrated to be good enough to achieve high image quality [10, 11].”
From Lessons learned after a three-year store and forward teledermatology experience using internet: Strengths and limitations (2012) · cites this paper as [10]
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- Authors
- Hockey, A. D., Wootton, R., & Casey, T.
- Affiliations
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Department of Dermatology, Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
- Corresponding author
- Hockey, A D
- ORCID
- Wootton, R
- Venue
- Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2004-11
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1_suppl
- Pages
- 44-47
- ISSN
- 1357-633X (ISSN-L)
- 1758-1109
- OpenAlex
- W1991813753
- Semantic Scholar
- 1b9ae6c297aa7708be0db2644d3b32e6e6e0e9ca
- Cited by
- 32
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 2.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Healthcare Systems and Technology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Digital Imaging in Medicine
- Keywords
- teledermatology, store-and-forward telemedicine, primary care, general practitioners, rural primary care, dermatology referral, email communication, digital images, service feasibility, dermatology consultation
- MeSH terms
- Dermatology, Family Practice, Feasibility Studies, Humans, Primary Health Care, Queensland, Referral and Consultation, Skin Diseases, Remote Consultation
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