Video consults with dermatologists aid treatment
// Dr. April Armstrong from UC Davis looked at Live-Video derm consults of 1,500 patients 2003 - 2005
// Great work… what I see to be done further is have a control group to compare patient outcomes between PCP vs Telederm and stratify by disease type. Ultimately, PCP’s will learn to take care of many derm conditions with occasional oversight via TD
They found that the video consult led to a change in diagnosis from the referring primary care doctor’s decision in 70 percent of cases. Those changes included a diagnosis of psoriasis or eczema when primary care doctors had originally suspected a skin infection, or a change in the determination of whether or not lesions were considered cancerous.
Even more frequently, the consults led to a recommendation to start or stop taking a particular medication, or to change medication doses or the way a medication was given.
In total, there was a change in how a patient’s condition was managed after almost 98 percent of video consults, the researchers reported in the Archives of Dermatology this week.
(via Reuters originally in Archives of Dermatology)
