A research group led by Lecturer Atsushi Fujimoto (at the time of the research), Professor Riichiro Abe, and Specially Appointed Professor Seitaro Iguchi of the Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences at Niigata University investigated the accuracy of telemedicine for skin diseases using video calls. We found that medical specialists demonstrated higher diagnostic accuracy than doctors specializing in other fields.
According to Niigata University, the research group showed the skin conditions of patients with skin diseases whose diagnosis had already been confirmed to 6 people (18 dermatologists, XNUMX dermatologists, and XNUMX non-dermatologists) through a video call using ZOOM. , I was diagnosed.
As a result, the diagnostic accuracy was 77.8-89.0% for dermatologists, 27.8-77.8% for dermatologists, and 22.2-33.3% for non-dermatologists, confirming that dermatologists showed high diagnostic results. . Furthermore, only dermatologists have a high accuracy rate of over 80% for inflammatory keratosis including psoriasis, inflammatory skin diseases including erythema exudative multiforme, and hereditary keratosis.
Many skin diseases are diagnosed using palpation in addition to visual inspection by a doctor, but palpation cannot be used in telemedicine, which has recently become commonplace. Until now, there has been no research that has verified how accurate a doctor's diagnosis can be made by just visual inspection.
The research group believes that by taking the results of this study as a first step and verifying the diagnostic accuracy of various skin diseases, it will be possible to appropriately promote remote medical treatment.
