Abstract
Teledermatology is assuming a progressively greater role as a healthcare delivery method, especially now, during this pandemic time. It is important to know how accurate this tool is for different skin diseases. Most of the studies have focused on skin neoplasms or general dermatology. Studies based on a large number of inflammatory dermatoses have not yet been performed. Such knowledge can help dermatologists to decide whether endorsing this method or not. Our objective was to determine the accuracy of teledermatology in inflammatory dermatoses in a robust number of cases. A retrospective cohort study was conducted in São Paulo, Brazil, from July 2017–18, where a store-and-forward Teledermatology project was implemented under primary-care attention to triage surgical, more complex, or severe dermatoses. A total of 30,976 patients presenting 55,012 lesions took part in the project. Thirteen participating teledermatologists had three options to refer the patients: directly to biopsy, to the in-person dermatologist or back to the general physician with most probable diagnosis and management. In the group referred to the in-person dermatologist, we looked for the 20 most frequent International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems- 10th revision (ICD-10) of inflammatory dermatoses, which resulted in 739 patients and 739 lesions. As patients had been triaged by teledermatology previously, we were able to compare ICD-10 codes filled both by teledermatogists and by in-person dermatologists. The proportion of complete, partial, and no agreement rates between the in-person dermatologist's and the teledermatologist's diagnoses was used for accuracy. We also calculated Cohen's kappa, a statistical measure of inter-rater agreement, for complete agreement. The mean complete agreement rate for all twenty dermatoses was 78% (31–100%) and kappa = 0.743; partial agreement 8%; and no agreement 14%, presenting variability according to the disease. Our study showed that teledermatology for inflammatory dermatoses has a high accuracy. This result reassures that it can be a proper option for patient care.
Highlights
Telemedicine, especially in this pandemic moment, is of great value for delivering healthcare
It provides high-resolution dermatologic images and enables an efficient practice that can be performed across time zones, this modality is limited by the ability of the teledermatologist to obtain additional clinical history while evaluating the case (1)
Since there was a long patients’ waiting list for an appointment with a dermatologist in the public health service, the aim of the teledermatology project was to triage the patients, in such a way that the severe, more complex, or surgical cases would be prioritized for biopsy procedure and in-person dermatologists, and the mild cases would be managed in the primary care attention along with the general physician (GP)
Summary
Telemedicine, especially in this pandemic moment, is of great value for delivering healthcare. It has the potential to improve access to subspecialty expertise, reduce healthcare costs, and improve the overall quality of care. Dermatology is suitable for this care system. Asynchronous teledermatology is a method whereby clinical or dermoscopy dermatologic images are obtained, sent to the responding dermatologist, who can review them at later time. It provides high-resolution dermatologic images and enables an efficient practice that can be performed across time zones, this modality is limited by the ability of the teledermatologist to obtain additional clinical history while evaluating the case (1)
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