Does dermoscopy rise the diagnostic accuracy in teledermatology?

Abstract

Introduction Teledermatoloy has become very popular in the recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many studies investigate the advantages and disadvantages of that special medical service. Objective To investigate the contribution of dermoscopy to diagnostic accuracy in teledermatology. Materials and methods Fifteen general practitioners requested skin lesions within the framework of the research project “Teledermatology Styria”. Medical history was documented and clinical and dermatoscopic images were taken and transmitted as medical case via a store-and-forward teledermatology delivery service. Within 48 hours, two teledermatologists made a diagnosis and recommended a therapy. The author independently made a primary clinical diagnosis, a dermatoscopic diagnosis and a final diagnosis and assessed quality of dermatoscopic image and anamnesis of the medical case. Results A total of 491 skin lesions from 464 patients were telediagnosed from December 2019 to July 2020. Dermatoscopy changed primary clinical diagnosis of the author in 9.44% (29/307) of all medical cases. The diagnostic accuracy of the author increased from 72,02% to 88,69% with a dermatoscopic image for single skin lesions, that were primarily suspected for cutaneous neoplasms. Conclusion This master thesis shows that teledermatoscopy improves the diagnostic accuracy rate for single skin lesions, that are primarily suspicious for cutaneous neoplasms, fitting to the current literature. Additionally, the high number of undiagnosed medical requests indicate the need of dermatological teleconsultations for general practitioners. We support the opinion that teledermatology can be used as a triage tool for skin cancer.

Datum der Bewilligung	2022
Originalsprache	Englisch
Gradverleihende Hochschule	Medizinische Universität Graz
Betreuer/-in	Rainer Hofmann-Wellenhof (Betreuer*in)