Teledermatology is a healthcare tool that is being used around the world. It provides accurate diagnosis and has been gaining importance over time on visual diagnosis. Teledermatology can be used for triage in primary care for addressing skin conditions by improving access and also reducing time to treatment for surgical, severe or lethal diseases.

A recent study was done to assess the proportion of pediatric patients lesions to be managed by using teledermatology in primary care attention. The ten most frequent skin conditions were also evaluated with the most common treatments and the referrals made by the teledermatologists to biopsy, attending dermatologist or at primary care attention.

The cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted by store-and-forward teledermatology during a year in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil that included 6,879 individuals and 10,126 lesions.

Teledermatologist could diagnose, treat and orient each lesion if the photographs taken had good quality. They would choose one of any three options for referral: direct to biopsy, attending dermatologist or to be kept at primary care attention.

Teledermatology managed to evaluate 62% of the lesions to be kept at primary care attention, 37% of them were referred to dermatologists and 1% were referred to biopsy. This reduced the mean waiting time for an in-presence visit with dermatologist in 78%. In patients 0-2 years old, the predominating lesions were related to eczema and benign congenital lesions. In patients 3-12 years old, eczema was a chief complaint with warts and molluscum. In patients, 13-19 years old, acne was the most common problem, followed by atopic dermatitis, nevi and warts. And the most frequent and common treatment was emollient.

The study concluded that teletriage addressed 63% of the lesions without the need for an in-presence dermatologist visit. Thus, teledermatology can manage common diseases and adjust dermatological appointments for the most serious, surgical or complex skin illnesses and reduce the mean waiting time for them.

Source: Giavina Bianchi M, Santos AP, Cordioli E. The majority of skin lesions in pediatric primary care attention could be managed by Teledermatology. PLoS One. 2019;14(12):e0225479.