A new study published in The Australasian Journal of Dermatology aimed to present a clinical audit of all patient referrals to the videoconference teledermatology clinic for a two-year period, in rural and remote Queensland.

This was a retrospective study wherein, 483 consultations for 178 patients were conducted by the teledermatology clinic.

The findings disclosed that most patients were from remote and very remote regions of Queensland with a mean distance from a metropolitan hospital to the patients town of residence of 1295 km. The most common reason for referral, as per the referral form, was rash (32%), followed by acne (12%) and dermatitis (11%). Most (78%) referrals came from general practitioners. Around 8% of patients seen in the teledermatology clinic were converted to in-person review and 81% of patients were managed via teledermatology. Meanwhile, 10% of patients did not attend the scheduled teleconsultation.

It was concluded that outpatient teledermatology clinic run through the Telehealth Centre of a metropolitan hospital is an effective way of delivering a general dermatology consultation service to rural and remote patients in a timely manner.

Source: The Australasian Journal of Dermatology. 2020 May 11. doi: 10.1111/ajd.13322.