Global Teledermatology: A specific dermatologic web application for Dermatological Consultation
Internet Health 2004;3(1):e3
Abstract
Telemedicine is a new tool in medicine that utilizes modern telecommunication technology to exchange expert medical information between two or more distant medical centers. The inherently visual nature of dermatology makes it easily applicable to virtual medicine and store-and-forward systems have proven to be highly reliable and accurate in teledermatologic diagnosis compared to traditional face-to-face diagnosis. telederm.org is a user-friendly application launched in May 2002 whereby dermatologists, general practitioners or any healthcare workers interested in teledermatology can quickly and easily seek from a pool of expert consultant diagnostic advice regarding interesting and unusual cases in clinical dermatology, dermatopathology and dermoscopy. As of November, 2003, more than 250 healthcare professionals, coming from 40 different countries, subscribed to the services offered by telederm.org. Over the first 18 months since inception, telederm.org has answered 593 requests for consultations. The goal of telederm.org is to develop a best-practice model for teleconsultation using skin diseases as a paradigm. A given skin condition can be diagnosed virtually by many different experts in dermatology, thereby stimulating exchange of knowledge and expertise. By providing an interactive discussion between physicians at the point of care and experts from many different countries, telederm.org seeks to raise the level of competence of physicians and dermatologists on a worldwide level.
Keywords: teledermatology, telemedicine, e-visits, internet, dermatology, dermatopathology, dermoscopy
