Hamed Mahdizadeh, Haleh Ayatollahi, Nafiseh Esmaeili, Kamkar Mehran Kamkar ,
Volume 4, Issue 3 (9-2013)
It is more than a decade that teledermatology has been
considered as a potential substitute for the face to face visits. To evaluate
its quality, the reliability and accuracy of teledermatology diagnoses are
compared to those which are made in face to face visits. In this article, the
results of the studies which have compared the reliability and accuracy of
diagnoses had been made using teledermatology to the face to face visits were
reviewed.
Different resources, such as electronic databases and e-journals
were used to choose relevant articles related to teledermatology published
between 1997 and 2013, and their main focus was on the reliability and accuracy
of diagnoses in teledermatology compared to those in the face to face visits.
The reliability and accuracy of diagnoses in
teledermatology compared to those in the face to face visits was more than 60%.
Moreover, improving the reliability and accuracy depended on different factors,
such as image quality, clinical information, differential diagnoses,
consultation with other colleagues and gaining their secondary opinions.
It seems that providing adequate clinical information about
patients can help to improve the reliability and accuracy of diagnoses in
teledermatology. In this case, teledermatology can be used to provide
healthcare services for the distant areas and the poor.
