Overview of dermatologic tele-expertise in areas of low physician density: A retrospective study at Le Mans general hospital.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In areas of low physician density, especially as regards dermatologists in France, there is an increasing interest in tele-expertise. This is particularly the case in the Sarthe department, where the number of physicians continues to decline and access to care was further limited by the COVID 19 epidemic. STUDY DESIGN: We retrospectively collected data from tele-expertise requests submitted to Le Mans General Hospital by general practitioners via a dedicated platform between May 6, 2019, and April 9, 2021. RESULTS: Six hundred and forty three requests relating to 90 different diagnoses were recorded during this period. One hundred and thirty four patients (20% of requests) were invited to attend a face-to-face consultation within an average of 29 days. DISCUSSION: Through the use of tele-expertise at Le Mans Genreal Hospital it was possible to introduce a means of tackling the problem of the lack of dermatologists in the Sarthe department. Rapid responses enabled the number of consultation requests to be reduced, leading to fewer population displacements in the context of the present pandemic. CONCLUSION: These initial results are encouraging and confirm that tele-expertise seems a satisfactory option to optimize access to care for populations in areas of low physician density.