Dermatologists may be Able to Diagnose Condition from Pictures Only

Dermatologists will soon be just a snapshot away after a new study published in JAMA Dermatology revealed that taking a picture of skin conditions or suspicious mole would be enough for the dermatologists to conduct a remote diagnosis of the condition. Researchers at University of Pennsylvania looked into the effectiveness of teledermatology, which involves sending dermatologists photos of suspicious, by recruiting around 50 individuals who were in a hospital with various skin problems.

While the patients had an in-person consultation with a doctor, the researchers took pictures of their skin conditions and sent them to two independent dermatologists.

The researchers found that the remote dermatologists agreed 95 percent of the times with recommendations of biopsy by in-house doctors while they agreed 90 percent of the times when the in-house doctors recommended same-day additional tests. “A substantial agreement between in-person and teledermatology consultants in this study demonstrates the reliability and potential of this platform”, lead researcher Dr Misha Rosenbach said.



Source-Medindia