Telemedicine and teledermatology: Past, present and future

Telemedicine is an emerging field within medicine with potential to revolutionize the delivery of health care. It is defined as the use of telecommunication technologies to transfer medical information. Teledermatology is a category of telemedicine. Early experiments were already made at the beginning of the 20(th) century, the breakthrough happened in the nineties because of the rapid progress of telecommunication technology. The latest advance is mobile telemedicine which is characterized by the use of mobile devices such as mobile phone and PDA (personal digital assistant). Advantages of telemedicine are the possibility of remote patient-care as well as the easy and fast access to expert opinions and education. This can either happen through exchange of previously stored data/images (store-and-forward method) or in real time. Since our society is increasingly becoming interconnected via technical advances, it is essential that medicine also has an objective understanding of the topic.