Mobile Teledermatology Shows Potential for HIV Patients

Welcome back to my general dermatology blog. My name is Sudhir Polisetty and I write this blog to help others stay abreast of interesting dermatology research and headlines. Today’s blog concerns a new study appearing in JAMA Dermatology about the potential to improve access to care for HIV-positive patients.

Face-to-face evaluations by a board certified dermatologist is the golden standard of dermatology, so little research is available on the effectiveness of mobile teledermatology. The study’s authors note that few have investigated this format’s reliability and validity while none, to the researchers’ knowledge, have used the technology in sub-Saharan Africa among HIV-positive patients. They hoped this study would provide a better understanding of whether mobile teledermatology would produce valid assessments when measured against face-to-face consultations.

The cross-sectional study in Gaborone, Botswana, evaluated 76 HIV-positive patients aged 18 years and older. Each of these patients had a skin or mucosal condition that had not been previously evaluated by a dermatologist.” To make accurate comparisons, researchers began by having patients evaluated in person by a board certified dermatologist. Next, their vitals and photos taken with a 5-megapixel camera were collected and transmitted via mobile phone to a password-protected website. A team of three dermatologists and one oral medicine specialist were then tasked with providing a diagnosis based only on the info collected remotely. Researchers also assessed test-retest reliability by asking the same specialists to make recommendations a few months later without looking at their previous comments.

Specialists agreed with their initial primary diagnoses between 52 and 80 percent of the time. Agreement between primary diagnoses from face-to-face evaluations and mobile teledermatology ranged from 47 to 57 percent while agreement on how to treat the primary diagnosis ranged from 32 and 51 percent. Researchers concluded that much work is still left to be done in order to optimize and validate the use of teledermatology on a large scale.

Learn more about the study in this write-up from Healio Dermatology: http://www.healio.com/infectious-disease/dermatology/news/online/%7B7a32becd-9f87-4ea0-b93c-54636a512e57%7D/mobile-teledermatology-shows-potential-for-hiv-patients

Thanks for reading,
Sudhir Polisetty

You can learn more about me on my Zerply profile, or on the US News & World Report: http://health.usnews.com/doctors/sudhir-polisetty-696608