The COVID-19 emergency on March 9, 2020 led to a lock-down in Italy, imposing the closure of non-urgent outpatient clinics devoted to care of chronic, severe, inflammatory skin diseases that require periodic follow-up. Soon thereafter, a teledermatologic service in smartworking was initiated using phone calls and emails.

The aim of a new study published in Dermatologic Therapy was to establish the real-life experience and effectiveness of teledermatologic service with smartworking in managing skin diseases in vulnerable high-need patients.

In this study, remote monitoring was performed in 183 patients—126 with moderate-to-severe psoriasis; 10 with severe acne; 11 having severe AD; 11 with hidradenitis suppurativa; 9 with blistering autoimmune diseases; and 16 having other autoimmune skin diseases.

During remote-visits several interventions were conducted – triage for COVID-19 suspected symptoms, email check of clinical pictures and of laboratory examinations, advices for topical and systemic therapy continuation or discontinuation/switch and re-schedule of next appointment. It was noted that only five patients required personal office visit (2.6%) – reducing consistently the number of face-to face visits.

Therefore, remote monitoring was effective in preventing unnecessary worsening of severe chronic skin diseases and poor outcomes due to withdrawal of current therapy.

Source: Dermatologic Therapy. 2020 May 26;e13495. doi: 10.1111/dth.13695.