Teledermatology Can Increase Access for Patients With High-Risk Melanoma: Erik Jaklitsch

This content was produced independently by The American Journal of Managed Care^® (AJMC^®) and is not endorsed by the American Academy of Dermatology.

Dermatology lends itself well to telemedicine, particularly as a screening tool to reduce wait times and increase access to care for patients with high-risk melanoma, said Erik Jaklitsch, second-year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh.

Jaklitsch presented research on diagnosing melanomas through teledermatology at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.¹

Use of teledermatology increased at the start of the pandemic and has continued to be used because of the promise of the technology to identify malignancies. Jaklitsch’s poster analyzed 618 patients diagnosed with melanoma between March 1, 2020, and March 20, 2022, comparing those who initially presented via in-person appointment with those initially presenting through a teledermatology visit.

Transcript

AJMC^®: Is telehealth particularly useful in dermatology, and why?

Jaklitsch: Dermatology is a field that lends itself particularly well to telemedicine, largely due to its visual nature. There is a wide spectrum of reasons why people might visit a dermatologist. In this context, our research shows that this great capacity of telemedicine may have utility in the context of skin cancer for the triage and/or screening of concerning lesions.

We found that asynchronous teledermatology with pictures and synchronous telederm video visits were able to capture melanomas that really needed to be seen—cancers that had increased thickness and more aggressive subtypes, among other prognostic factors. We also found that this same group higher-stage, more aggressive melanomas had a much shorter average time from patient seeking care to being seen and eventual biopsy, which suggests that teledermatology as a triage tool in this setting allowed expedited care.

This is particularly meaningful considering that melanoma in general has a high mortality rate, but being seen at an earlier stage increases survivability and reduces the burdens of potential treatment on patients. Furthermore, it has been well studied that access is a current issue in dermatology, and a better understanding of these tools that might allow us to expand that access into places without physical dermatology offices is crucial.

Reference

1. Jaklitsch E, Shah V, Agarwal A, et al. A comparison of melanomas diagnosed through teledermatology vs. in-person visits. Presented at: American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting; March 17-21, 2023; New Orleans, LA. Poster 44399.