A longitudinal study of consistency in diagnostic accuracy of teledermatology tools.

BACKGROUND: Diagnostic accuracy (DA) is an outcome measure to assess the feasibility of teledermatology tools. Despite ample data with variable DA values, no study has examined the aggregate DA value obtained from the available studies and observed its consistency over a period of time. This kind of a longitudinal study about teledermatology will be necessary to check its usefulness and plan for further implementation. AIMS: To observe the DA trend over a period of 15 years (1997-2011). METHODS: Only those studies (n = 59) using a single tool for general, tertiary, and subspecialty teledermatology practice were included to obtain the DA values. Studies were graded based on the number of subjects and gold standard comparison between teledermatologist and clinical dermatologist (face-to-face examination). RESULTS: This analysis sought to identify the DA trend was carried out by evaluating 17 store and forward teledermatology (SAFT) based and 8 Video conference (VC) tool-based studies with 2385 and 1305 patients respectively, in comparison with the gold-standard assessment. The average DA was 73.35% ± 14.87% for SAFT and 70.37% ± 7.01% for VC. One sample t-test analysis with 100% accuracy as standard value revealed 28% deficiency for SAFT (t = 7.925; P = 0.000) and 30% deficiency for VC (t = 11.955; P = 0.000). Kruskall-Wallis test confirmed the consistency of DA values in the SAFT (χ2 = 1.852, P = 0.763) tool. CONCLUSION: SAFT and VC were adequately validated on a large number of patients by various feasibility studies with the gold standard (face-to-face) comparison between teledermatologists and clinical dermatologists. The DA of SAFT was good, stable over the 15 years and comparable to VC. Health-care providers need to plan for appropriate utility of SAFT either alone or in combination with VC to implement and deliver teledermatology care in India.

Accuracy of store-and-forward diagnosis in leprosy.

Telemedicine might increase the speed of diagnosis for leprosy and reduce the development of disabilities. We compared the accuracy of diagnosis made by telemedicine with that made by in-person examination. The cases were patients with suspected leprosy at eight public health clinics in outlying areas of the city of São Paulo. The case history and clinical examination data, and at least two clinical images for each patient, were stored in a web-based system developed for teledermatology. After the examination in the public clinic, patients then attended a teaching hospital for an in-person examination. The benchmark was the clinical examination of two dermatologists at the university hospital. From August 2005 to April 2006, 142 suspected cases of leprosy were forwarded to the website by the doctors at the clinics. Of these, 36 cases were excluded. There was overall agreement in the diagnosis of leprosy in 74% of the 106 remaining cases. The sensitivity was 78% and the specificity was 31%. Although the specificity was low, the study suggests that telemedicine may be a useful low-cost method for obtaining second opinions in programmes to control leprosy.