A new virtual inpatient dermatology electronic referral service: a timely solution in the COVID‐19 pandemic and beyond?

Abstract

Table 1 Benefits and limitations of a new virtual electronic inpatient dermatology referral service versus a paper and face-to-face (FTF) system Benefits Limitations Faster access to dermatology opinions for inpatients Access to photographs rate-limiting step All essential clinical details fully included in e-referral Accuracy of diagnosis reliant on quality of photographs Automatic paper trail (no referrals physically misplaced) Need to convert to FTF for some patients if diagnosis unclear and/or biopsy required Audit (centrally recorded list of virtual activity) Reliance on a non-dermatologist to communicate with patient Access from all hospital sites Equity of serviceopinions available for distant hospital sites Enhanced access to senior review Enhanced access to peer review Resident teaching using virtual ward rounds Typed dermatology opinion recorded on patient record

Acceptance of Telemedicine Compared to In-Person Consultation From the Providers' and Users’ Perspectives: Multicenter, Cross-Sectional Study in Dermatology

“…The individual attitude toward teledermatology has favorably changed within the last 10 years, as reported in a recent survey of British dermatologists [ 5 ]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, remote consultations have markedly increased in importance [ 6 ]. However, a prerequisite for widespread adoption of telemedicine is that it must favorably compete with in-person consultations on several objective measures, including effectiveness [ 7 , 8 ], availability [ 9 , 10 ], and costs [ 11 ].…”