Online Visits With Dermatologists Enhance Access to Care for Patients With Minor and Serious Skin Conditions, Boost Physician Productivity | AHRQ Innovations Exchange

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Online Visits With Dermatologists Enhance Access to Care for Patients With Minor and Serious Skin Conditions, Boost Physician Productivity | AHRQ Innovations Exchange

Online Visits With Dermatologists Enhance Access to Care for Patients With Minor and Serious Skin Conditions, Boost Physician Productivity

Snapshot

Back Story: Online Visit Catches Melanoma at Early Stage After being told by multiple dermatologist offices in the Pittsburgh area that the wait for an inperson visit was 3 to 4 months, a 29-year-old male used the system on a Saturday to submit pictures of a mole on his scalp that had recently changed in appearance. Immediately after seeing... Read more

Summary Patients with skin conditions conduct virtual visits with board-certified dermatologists, submitting their medical history and information and photographs related to the condition(s) through user-friendly, secure Web-based and mobile applications. Those with minor conditions receive a diagnosis and treatment plan within 3 business days. Patients for whom the diagnosis remains unclear or who have potentially serious conditions are quickly scheduled for an inperson visit. The program has significantly enhanced access to diagnosis and treatment (including for patients with serious, potentially life-threatening skin conditions such as melanoma), increased dermatologist productivity, and generated high levels of patient satisfaction. Evidence Rating (What is this?) Suggestive: The evidence consists of post-implementation data on the number of patients served, physician productivity, and patient satisfaction. begin do Developing Organizations Iagnosis® end do Date First Implemented 2006 Dr. Seraly began seeing patients through virtual visits using an earlier version of the system in 2006; in 2010, Dr. Seraly and Mr. Eakin cofounded Iagnosis and began to upgrade the system significantly, under the name DermatologistOnCall®. (The Context section provides more details.)