| Background Telemedicine is defined as delivery of health services via remote telecommunications,including interactive consultative and diagnostic services via exchanging medical information(text,images,audio,and vedio)between a doctor and a doctor or a patient and a doctor.Our country has limited medical and health resources,which are distributed extremely unevenly,with most best hospitals and physicians are concentrated in large cities.Not access to high-quality medical services locally and the high cost of the medical services have always been a problem for the patients in rural and remote areas of our country.Telemedicine may serve as a solution to all eviate this problem.Teledermatology is an important branch of telemedicine.As a morphology discipline,dermatology is particularly fit for telemedicine to take advantage of the advances in telecommunication technology.Numerous random-controlled studies have proved that there is a high concordance between the tele-diagnosis and the conventional face-to-face diagnosis in dermatology.Teledermoscopy and teledermatopathology are two sub-fields of teledermatology,gaining popularity rapidly.Objective To study the history and current status of teledermatology in our country,and to investigate the telemedicine,particularly teledermatology,implementation in Henan Telemedcine Centre,in order to provide evidence-based information and suggestion for the future research and development in teledermatology.Methods 1.Literature review: Chinese databanks China National Knowledge Infrastructure,Wanfang Data,and VIP,and English databanks Pub Med,EMBASE,and Google Scholar were searched for publications in Chinese teledermatology from the earliest date to March 15,2018.According to inclusion and exclusion criteria,the two reviewers collected publications and then extracted data from the publications.2.Telemedicine,particularly teledermatology data in Henan Telemedicine Center from January 1,2014 to December 31,2017 were collected.3.Statistical parameters: The types of the publications in Chinese teledermatology and their individual frequencies;annual average frequency and range,and average annual growth rate of journal publications;Frequency of literature on actual teledermatology's applications.The frequencies of referring hospitals of Henan Telemedicine Center both in Henan and out of Henan in our country;frequency of consultant departments;teleconsultation frequency and their relative frequency of each consultant department;top 10 consultant departments and their teleconsultation relative frequency.The frequency and relative frequency of teleconsultation in dermatology;the average annual teleconsultation frequency and range,and average annual growth rate.Results 1.70 publications in Chinese teledermatology were obtained from CNKI,Wanfang,VIP,Pub Med,EMBASE and Google Scholar: 4 newspaper articles,5 conference papers,56 journal paper,and 6 theses.The average annual publication frequency is 2.36,ranging from 0 to 11.The average annual growth rate is 3.02%. Among them,12.86% of the literatures actually carried out teledermatology.The newspaper articles: mainly about the implementation of teledermatology projects and mobile-dermatology projects,as well as the perspectives of teledermatology in our country.The conference papers: mainly about the perspectives and advantages of teledermatology in our country,the laws,regulations in telemedicine,the integration of science & technology with teledermatology,and the introduction of teledermatopathology.The theses: mainly about teledermatology projects,teledermatology modes,law,accuracy of telediagnosis,and teledermoscopy.The journal articles: mainly focus on terminologies,successful experiences in implementation,and science & technology in teledermatology.2.Henan Telemedicine Center has referring hospitals both in Henan Province(147)and out of Henan(in Shanxi and Xinjiang).In this center,59 consultant departments offered teleconsultation,respectively belonging to 8 broad clinical departments.The top ten consultant departments included departments of neurology,respiratory medicine,pediatrics,oncology,cardiovascular medicine,neurosurgery,hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery,liver transplantation surgery,gastroenterology,and gynecology.From January 1,2014 to December 31,2017,the average annual teleconsultation frequency was 13831,the average annual growth rate was 107.43%,total 55324 teleconsultation had been finished.The teleconsultation frequency and relative frequency in dermatology over the past four years was 229 and 0.41% of the total consultations,respectively.And the average annual teleconsultation frequency in dermatology was57.25,ranging from 9 to 72,and the average annual growth rate was 100%.The frequency of teleconsultation in department of dermatology is much lower than those in the top 10 consultant department.Conclusions 1.The term teledermatology first appeared in Chinese literature in 1997,most of the researches in China on teledermatology are literature review,only 12.86% are application researches;no random controlled clinical trials using large sample were found in Chinese teledermatology.2.Dermatologists in China have begun to show great interests in the application and research in dermatoscopy and teledermoscopy.Some authorities have started to found Chinese people's skin image resource database.With the development of Internet technology,teledermatology are gradually progressing and maturing,Some software developers and dermatologists have turned their attentions to the researches in mobile dermatology application.3.The teledermatopathology has been introduced in the publications in our country,and there are still no reports about the application of it.4.The frequency of teleconsultation in dermatology in Henan telemedicine center is much lower than those in other specialties,but it had been growing with an annual growth rate of 100%. |
PDF Full Text Request