Teledermatology--UK experience of setting up an integrated teledermatology service

Telemedicine has traditionally been seen as an all or nothing solution to the problem of providing medical service to remote communities. In the UK, however, the majority of the population lives within easy travelling distance of medical service, and it is inappropriate to apply telemedicine for the same reasons and in the same way. We describe an alternative approach, where telemedicine is used to complement the existing clinical infrastructure of the outreach clinic and hospital visit, and the patient may opt to have any follow up appointments by video conference. We also describe the concept of the virtual consultation that we have developed to support our work.