Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 MSc, Medical Information Technology, Medical Informatics Research Center, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Medical Informatics, Research Center for Modeling in Health, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
3 Assistant Professor, Health Services Management, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Introduction:Telemedicine is a new field which uses the modern telecommunication technology to exchange medical information. This correlation can be between patient and doctor for the doctor to telediagnose or between two doctors or two medical centers for tele-consultaions on the case. This project intends to create a web based telesoftware due to lack of dermatologists in many areas of the country and also the uneven geographical distribution of these specialists and their absence in rural and remote areas. This software aims at reducing the trips to dermatologists in the province based on the restore and forward technique. It is also intended to answer the question that with the implementation of this software in Kerman medical and Science University how much of the total trips to the province will be reduced. Method: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional and applied study which was done to measure the rate of reduce provincail travelling by implementation teledermatology system . This study was done from September to december 2012. The study population was the patients who were referred to skin clinic of Kerman medical university. A total of 91 patients were enrolled into the study. Patients’ identity features, city and medical history were recorded by Questionnaire and lesions’ images were taken. Then patients were referred to a dermatologist to put his diagnosis on the disease. About two months later the same dermatologist was asked to put his diagnosis based on the patients’ recorded medical history and digital images of the lesions. Then the two diagnoses were compared and Kappa coefficient was calculated , The data was analyzed in SPSS 20 using descriptive statistics. For ensure of the Justifiability of Questionnaire, we use the comments of four expert of this field . and kappa coefficient was calculated as 0.77. Result: After data analysis of 91 patients who went to one of the city’s dermatology clinics it was found that the implementation of this software lead to a 82.36 percent cut in trips to the province with the purpose of diagnosis and treatment of skin diseases. Conclusion: After reaching the target the software was designed in Kerman medical University as a web-based software using ASP.net and Sqlserver database and it was implemented using the Telederm.kmu.ac.ir address. Keywords: Software; Telemedicine; Skin Diseases.
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