EstomatoNet: A 5-year experience of an oral medicine telediagnosis service.

OBJECTIVE: EstomatoNet is an online service driven by primary health care professionals to support diagnosis and decision-making for oral lesions. This study aimed to describe the experience of the service, depicting use cases and its impact on the referral to specialised services. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patient/applicant demographics and information related to their oral lesions and/or complaints were retrieved from the service's cloud-based platform. The differential diagnosis provided by the applicants, their level of satisfaction and the teleconsultant's opinion in terms of diagnosis and management were also reported. The teleconsultant's suggestion was cross-referenced with the data from the regulation system to verify the avoidance of referral. RESULTS: Out of 2,002 teleconsultations, most patients were women (55.1%) and 50.1% were aged between 20 and 59 years. Applicants (96.5%) generally considered the service very satisfying/satisfying. Potentially malignant disorders were reported in 19.6% of cases and 7.7% were suspected to be malignant. The referral of 37.3% of patients was avoided after the suggestion of keeping the patient in the primary health care system (k = 0.234; p < 0.001; 62.2% agreement). CONCLUSION: The use of EstomatoNet for oral mucosal lesions improves support for primary health care professionals in the management of lesions and reduces referral to specialised services.

Depressive symptoms of the elderly people and caregiver's burden in home care.

OBJECTIVES: To characterize the elderly population and their caregivers and to verify the association of depressive symptoms of the elderly and the caregiver's burden with the variables of interest. METHODS: A cross-sectional study with 80 elderly people and 78 caregivers in a Primary Health Service in southern Brazil. Retrospective collection conducted in a structured database based on the multidimensional evaluation tool applied to home care for the elderly participants and their caregivers. RESULTS: Most elderly participants were women (71.3%), with an average age of 82.1 years and 52.6% reported sadness or discouragement. Systemic arterial hypertension was the most frequent morbidity (68.8%). Most caregivers were women (85.7%), daughters of the elderly person (53.2%), mean age 57.8 years and 38.7% reported feeling the burden. The presence of depressive symptoms in the elderly was associated with Parkinson's disease (p=0.016) and to have a male caregiver (p=0.006). Caregiver's burden was associated with daily life activities such as bathing (p=0.021). CONCLUSIONS: There was evidence of differences in caregiver's gender in the presence of depressive symptoms and differences in the assistance in daily life activities for the caregiver's burden.