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. 2007 May 30;2(5):e483.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0000483.

Melanoma screening with cellular phones

Cesare Massone  1 , Rainer Hofmann-Wellenhof, Verena Ahlgrimm-Siess, Gerald Gabler, Christoph Ebner, H Peter Soyer
Affiliations

Melanoma screening with cellular phones

Cesare Massone et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Mobile teledermatology has recently been shown to be suitable for teledermatology despite limitations in image definition in preliminary studies. The unique aspect of mobile teledermatology is that this system represents a filtering or triage system, allowing a sensitive approach for the management of patients with emergent skin diseases.

Methodology/principal findings: In this study we investigated the feasibility of teleconsultation using a new generation of cellular phones in pigmented skin lesions. 18 patients were selected consecutively in the Pigmented Skin Lesions Clinic of the Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Graz, Graz (Austria). Clinical and dermoscopic images were acquired using a Sony Ericsson with a built-in two-megapixel camera. Two teleconsultants reviewed the images on a specific web application (http://www.dermahandy.net/default.asp) where images had been uploaded in JPEG format. Compared to the face-to-face diagnoses, the two teleconsultants obtained a score of correct telediagnoses of 89% and of 91.5% reporting the clinical and dermoscopic images, respectively.

Conclusions/significance: The present work is the first study performing mobile teledermoscopy using cellular phones. Mobile teledermatology has the potential to become an easy applicable tool for everyone and a new approach for enhanced self-monitoring for skin cancer screening in the spirit of the eHealth program of the European Commission Information for Society and Media.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: H. Peter Soyer is co-founder and managing director of e-derm-consult GmbH. The web application on which www.dermahandy.net runs has been developed and provided by e-derm-consult GmbH (Graz, Austria).

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. This dermoscopic image of a pigmented skin lesion has been captured applying the cellular phone on a pocket epiluminescence microscopy device.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Clinical (A) and dermoscopic images (B) of a melanoma (case 9).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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