Journal Information
Vol. 110. Issue 8.
Pages 623 (October 2019)
Vol. 110. Issue 8.
Pages 623 (October 2019)
Commentary
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Teledermatology as a Service for General Practitioners in Remote Areas
La teledermatología como herramienta al servicio del médico de familia en poblaciones aisladas
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B. Echeverría-García
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begoecheverria2@gmail.com

Corresponding author.
Servicio de Dermatología, Hospital Universitario de Fuenlabrada, Fuenlabrada, Madrid, Spain
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In this issue González Coloma et al1 analyze the use of teledermatology as a solution to the problem of access to specialist care in the province of Palena, Chile, where primary care clinics attend a large number of patients seeking care for skin conditions. The province's population is widely dispersed over a large geographic area, and access to a dermatologist through the public health care system is difficult because specialists are concentrated in centrally located cities. The authors report their cross-sectional study of the use of a teledermatology system, in particular the level of agreement between the diagnoses at the primary care clinics and at the referral hospital where the dermatologist was available. Agreement was moderate, somewhat lower than in similar studies.2 The significant difference between the rates of specialist and nonspecialist diagnoses of inflammatory skin diseases suggest a need for better training of primary care physicians in this respect. The authors also saw a very large reduction in response time (until a specialist diagnosis was reached) when a dermatologist was contracted at the referral hospital as opposed to attending cases there on a part-time basis. The results suggest a clear need for specialist staffing. Response time was also shorter when direct physical examination by the dermatologist at the referral center was not required. This study shows how teledermatology can resolve a significant proportion of the skin conditions seen by primary care practitioners, reducing costs and time until diagnosis for patients who reside in isolated rural areas that lack specialists.

References
[1]
F. González Coloma, M. Sandoval Garcés, V. Gedda Quiroga, C. Bley Banda.
Teledermatología aplicada en zonas extremas: experiencia de 4 centros asistenciales chilenos en ámbito rural y aislamiento extremo.
Actas Dermosifiliogr, (2019),
[2]
L. Cid, M. Vargas.
Teledermatology: Experience in a Chilean urban Family Health Center.
Rev ANACEM, 9 (2015), pp. 68-71

Please cite this article as: Echeverría-García B. La teledermatología como herramienta al servicio del médico de familia en poblaciones aisladas Actas Dermosifiliogr. 2019;110:623.

Copyright © 2019. Elsevier España, S.L.U. and AEDV
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