Mobile Health for Diagnosis and Management of Skin Lesions

Abstract

Introduction: Recent advances in mobile technology combined with medical specialties, have introduced a new option called mobile health that provides new opportunities to improve patients’ health. Mobile health has changed the traditional delivery of healthcare services and also previous assumptions of concepts such as service providers, patients, health care services and lifestyle. The aim of this study was to introduce mobile health concept and application of this technology in management and treatment of skin lesions. Methods: This is a comprehensive review aimed to introduce mobile health application in providing skin care and diagnostic services and clinical outcomes of this method. In this review article, articles on the telemedicine, mobile health, and teledermatology were searched using online databases such as Pubmed, Scopus, Google scholar, Web of Science, and Ebsco. Results: Studies in this area show that use of mobile health in dermatology is superior to the conventional method of teledermatology and this method can be used for diagnosis, treatment, screening, triage, and also management of patients with chronic conditions in their home. Conclusion: Mobile health can be potentially used as a cost effective and available method for providing professional skincare services especially in the economically or geographically-disadvantaged area, thereby, the gap of access to professional services will be filled.

Keywords

• telemedicine
• telehealth
• mobile health
• dermatology