TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kaur, Jasleen
AU  - Sharma, Priyanka
AU  - Thami, G P
AU  - Sethi, Maninder
AU  - Kakar, Shruti
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/12/10
TI  - Evaluation of Patient-Initiated Direct Care Mobile Phone–Based Teledermatology During The COVID-19 Pandemic
JO  - iproc
SP  - e35400
VL  - 7
IS  - 1
KW  - direct care teledermatology
KW  - teledermatology
KW  - hybrid teledermatology
KW  - patient satisfaction
KW  - physician confidence
KW  - COVID-19
AB  - Background: With advances in telecommunication, especially smartphones, teledermatology services offered by specialists are now being directly requested by the patients themselves. This model is known as patient-initiated, direct care teledermatology. It has been pushed to the forefront due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: The objectives of this study were to determine patients’ satisfaction and dermatologists’ confidence when a diagnosis was made via direct care mobile phone–based teledermatology. Methods: Patients availing direct care teledermatology services during the COVID-19 pandemic at a tertiary care center were subjected to a questionnaire within 5 days of the teleconsultation to assess patient satisfaction and opinions regarding using this model during and beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic. The dermatologists rated their confidence in making the clinical diagnosis on a scale from 1-10 for every case. Results: Of 437 participants, 419 (95.9%) were satisfied with this mode of teledermatology. An overwhelming majority (n=428, 97.9%) felt safe consulting the dermatologist via teleconsultation and not having to visit the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, 269 (61.6%) patients agreed that they would be happy to use a teledermatology service beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. The dermatologists’ confidence score in making an accurate diagnosis ranged from 3 to 10, with a mean of 9.20 (SD 1.12). Conclusions: The high levels of patient satisfaction and dermatologists’ confidence scores indicate that direct care mobile phone–based teledermatology may be a useful tool in providing dermatological services in appropriate settings and its use should continue to be explored beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Conflicts of Interest: None declared. 
SN  - 2369-6893
UR  - https://www.iproc.org/2021/1/e35400
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/35400
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27759104
DO  - 10.2196/35400
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/35400
ER  -