DERMOSCOPY IN THE XXI CENTURY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE 

Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venereologia 2010 February;145(1):127-32

Copyright © 2010 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Teledermoscopy: education, discussion forums, teleconsulting and mobile teledermoscopy

Massone C. ¹, Brunasso A. M. G. ², Hofmann-Wellenhof R. ¹, Gulia A. ³, Soyer H. P. ⁴ ✉

¹ Research Unit of Teledermatology and Research Unit of Dermatopathology, Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria 2 Department of Environmental Dermatology and Venereology Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria 3 Department of Dermatology, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy 4 Dermatology Research Centre, The University of Queensland, School of Medicine, Brisbane, Australia

Teledermoscopy has become in the last years one of the most florid reality of teledermatology. Parallel to the achievement of dermoscopy in clinical settings, teledermoscopy has grown in different fields, namely tele-education and teleconsulting. Blogs, atlases, discussion forums, on line courses and Diploma Courses do not only offer a second opinion consultation but give the opportunity to residents in dermatology and dermatologists with different level of expertise in dermoscopy to easily learn at home, to train or to improve their level in dermoscopy. On the other side, in some countries demand for melanoma screening has led to commercialization of “teledermoscopy” by different companies. Images nowadays can be transmitted over telecommunication networks not only via e-mail or a specific web application but also with last generation cellular phones. This reality opens the new incoming field of mobile teledermatology. Mobile teledermoscopy is a new horizon that might become in the future the basis of the self examination of pigmented skin lesions as a screening tool for malignant cutaneous tumors or to follow-up of high risk patients.