Early diagnosis of melanoma: a randomized trial assessing the impact of the transmission of photographs taken with a smartphone from the general practitioner to the dermatologist on the time to dermatological consultation

Early Diagnosis of Melanoma: Impact of Smartphone Photo Transmission on Dermatological Consultation Time

Background: Difficulty in obtaining timely dermatological consultation hinders early melanoma diagnosis. Optimizing patient care pathways is crucial to improve patient outcomes.

Methods: A randomized controlled study involved 51 French GPs and 250 patients referred for suspected melanoma lesions. GPs were randomized to either the smartphone arm or the usual care arm. In the smartphone arm, GPs sent photographs of suspicious lesions to dermatologists for assessment, while in the usual care arm, GPs followed their typical referral practice.

Results: The study included 125 patients in each arm. The time to dermatological consultation for patients requiring lesion resection was 56.5 days in the smartphone arm and 63.7 days in the usual care arm. However, the e-mail transmission of photographs did not significantly reduce the time to consultation.

Conclusions: The study did not find evidence that e-mail transmission of photographs from GPs to dermatologists improved the management of patients with suspicious skin lesions. Further research is required to identify quality criteria for tele-expertise in dermatology.

Trial Registration:

Registered on ClinicalTrials.gov under reference number NCT03137511 (May 2, 2017).

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