Abstract
Background With increasing digitalization and the current pandemic, teledermatology has gained importance in German-speaking countries in recent years. The regulation on remote consultation methods was recently relaxed, allowing for a more widespread introduction of teledermatological health care services. Objective The aim of this work is to evaluate a store-and-forward (SAF) teledermatology application from the patients’ and physicians’ perspectives. Methods We carried out a noncontrolled user survey of the web-based platform derma2go in the course of the remote consultation by German dermatologists. Through the platform, patients with dermatological requests could obtain expert advice within a few hours after entering their medical history and uploading photographs of their skin lesions. Results A total of 1476 (t1) and 361 (t2) patients and 2207 dermatologist ratings were included within the evaluation. A large proportion of participants were satisfied with the application (t1=83.9%; t2=81.2%). Most participants also rated the usability as high (t1=83.0% satisfied) and were satisfied with the response time of the dermatologists (t1=92.0% satisfied). In addition, a large majority agreed with the statement that they trusted the web-based application (t1=90.5%). At t2, 20.0% of those who participated stated that their skin problem had healed; for 49.8% of participants, it had already improved; for 22.0% of participants, it was unchanged; and for 3.5% of participants, skin problems had worsened. For 64.0% of users, the request was completely resolved, and for 24.2% or users, it was partly resolved as result of the consultation. For 79.7% of users, no additional information was needed by the participating dermatologists. From the practitioners’ perspective, 71.2% of all requests were completely resolved and 24.7% were partly resolved. Conclusions Our evaluation has shown that SAF applications, exemplified by derma2go, are likely to improve access to dermatological care, with a high patient satisfaction and a high rate of resolved requests, from the patients’ and physicians’ perspectives. In the future, teledermatological SAF applications can represent a supplement to the existing routine care in dermatology. The indications, patient groups, and use cases, for which the application is particularly suitable, will be determined in further studies.
Highlights
With increasing digitalization and the current pandemic, teledermatology has gained importance in German-speaking countries in recent years
We carried out a noncontrolled user survey of the web-based platform derma2go in the course of the remote consultation by German dermatologists
A total of 1476 (t1) and 361 (t2) patients and 2207 dermatologist ratings were included within the evaluation
Summary
With increasing digitalization and the current pandemic, teledermatology has gained importance in German-speaking countries in recent years. Teledermatology in German-Speaking Countries: Patients’ and Physicians’ Perspectives Christian Greis1; Marina Otten2; Patrick Reinders2, MSc Corresponding Author: Christian Greis Department of Dermatology University Hospital Zurich Rämistrasse 100 Zurich, 8091 Switzerland Phone: 41 44 255 31 55 Email: Christian.Greis@derma2go.com
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