Benchmarking of devices currently used for teledermatology consultations: optical specifications and limits
Résumé
Because they are user-friendly, consumer devices such as smartphones and digital cameras have greatly contributed to the development of teledermatology. Most of the time, teledermatology aims at providing homecare (or retirement residence) nurses with advice from a distant expert in skin disorders’ evaluation (chronic wounds and skin cancers mainly). This emerging medical practice is supposed to provide the patient with the same quality of medical care as an “in person” – consultation. The main goals for developing teledermatology are to limit public expenses and stress for elderly people associated with medical transport. Up to now, mobility has been the main criteria to choose devices to practice teledermatology. However, no study has yet evaluated nor compared image quality produced by such devices. Now the question is: what criteria can be used to define image quality in the specific field of teledermatology? Could medical devices found in dermatological practices replace such consumer devices to improve image quality sent on teledermatology networks? In order to answer both questions, we have listed the different (medical as well as consumer) devices usually used for teledermatology and in dermatological practices. Then we evaluated several optical criteria and selected a few of them (even a combination of them) that appear to be the most relevant for the teledermatology practice focusing on chronic wounds’ care, the latter skin disorder requiring specific performances. The main conclusion of this work is the need for the development of a dedicated device that will produce standardized images during non-standardized procedures typical of the teledermatology activity.