In:
Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, SAGE Publications, Vol. 20, No. 4 ( 2014-06), p. 178-183
Abstract:
Dermatology images can be acquired using a miniature handheld digital microscope at magnifications of 10- to 30-fold. We investigated the contribution of telemicroscopy to the reliability and accuracy of teledermatology for skin tumours. In a retrospective study of the reliability of diagnosis and management plans, two dermatologists compared teledermatology with face-to-face assessment. We also measured the accuracy of diagnosis by comparing teledermatology with histopathological examination. Two dermatologists evaluated the clinical images and information for 120 randomly sorted cases and recorded a diagnosis and a management plan for each case. Two months later, the same dermatologists re-evaluated the cases and suggested a new diagnosis and management plan for each case. The reliability of teledermatology diagnosis was not significantly different from face-to-face examination; it was significantly increased with the addition of microscopic images ( P 〈 0.001). The reliability of teledermatology management plans was not significantly different from face-to-face examination; it was significantly increased with the addition of the microscopic images ( P 〈 0.001). The accuracy of teledermatology was significantly increased with microscopic images ( P = 0.05). Telemicroscopy appears to be a useful adjunct to teledermatology with a digital camera. Future studies with different magnifications should be performed to detect the optimum magnification for telemicroscopy.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1357-633X
,
1758-1109
DOI:
10.1177/1357633X14533885
Language:
English
Publisher:
SAGE Publications
Publication Date:
2014
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2007700-2
