Nieuwe ontwikkelingen in teledermatologie: teleconsultatie reeds reguliere zorg, what's next?

EHealth contributes to a more efficient healthcare with similar or better quality of care. A proven eHealth service is teleconsultation, where a general practitioner (GP) digitally consults the specialist instead of physically referring the patient. From 2005 till June 2013 2754 GPs send 89,509 teleconsultations answered by 293 dermatologists through KSYOS TeleMedical Centre. 73% of the teleconsults did not lead to a physical referral (n=52,886). GPs who actively used teledermatology reduced their physical referrals to the dermatologist by 27.3% over a period of 5 years compared to GPs who did not use teledermatology. A teleconsultation was answered on average within 5.5 hrs. Teledermatoscopy can enhance GP knowledge. The time has come to add teledermatology to Dutch GP standards for dermatologic care.