Evaluation of a 3‐year teledermoscopy project in primary healthcare centres in Belgium

Abstract

Abstract Background With the increasing incidence of skin cancer and limited access to specialised care, teledermoscopy (TDS) may represent a useful triage tool for skin cancer detection. Objectives An evaluation of a 3‐year TDS project in primary healthcare centres (PHCs) in Belgium (TELESPOT project). Methods A total of nine PHCs were trained to use an in‐house developed smartphone‐based application for macroscopic and dermoscopic acquisition of skin lesions, subsequently analysed independently by two investigators in a tertiary university skin cancer centre. The primary outcome was the proportion of high‐priority management (HPM) recommendations. Secondary outcomes included the TDS diagnoses, the quality of image acquisition, the mean time between HPM recommendations and subsequent surgery, the correlation between HPM reports and histopathology after surgery as well as patient and general practitioner satisfaction scores. All the endpoints were compared between the initial year of the TDS project and the subsequent 2‐year extension period of the study. Results Over 3 years, a total of 478 lesions were analysed in 335 patients: initial phase (105 lesions from 76 patients in six PHCs) and extension phase (373 lesions from 259 patients in nine PHCs). An HPM was recommended in 9.2% (initial and extension phases: 7.6% and 15.7%, respectively). The dermoscopic‐histological correlation achieved 84.1%. The median delay between HPM and surgery was 9 days. Conclusions This TDS project avoided unnecessary tertiary care visits in about 9 out of 10 cases, increased the HPM by a ninefold in comparison with the conventional care pathway and provided excellent satisfaction levels for PHCs and patients. Long‐term participation improved the triage quality for suspect skin lesions by 2.24‐fold.

Keywords

• melanoma
• non‐melanoma skin cancer
• primary health care
• public health
• skin cancer
• teledermatology