Selfies in Skin Cancer Management During COVID-19 Pandemic
Mona Nada1, Kirti Garude2, Fahmy Fahmy2
1From the Plastic Surgery Department, Plymouth University Hospital, Plymouth.
Background:
COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every aspect of the health care system, which led to many alterations and modification of the ways of consultations. Likewise, in our unit, shift in the practice of skin cancer management was by addressing all new referrals through virtual telephone consultation with the aid of selfies taken by the patients and emailed to us before their appointment.
Aims And Objectives:
Assessment of effectiveness of selfie pictures taken by patients for skin cancer management over teleclinics and comparing teleclinical diagnosis with histological diagnosis.
Method:
A prospective, single-center study conducted from June 2020 to June 2021 at Countess of Chester Hospital, UK, included all new skin lesion referrals. All nonskin lesion referrals are excluded from this review. The number of pictures received and their quality in terms of focus, zoom, site identifiability, and overall satisfaction were noted. Decisions based on the teleconsultation were recorded as listing for surgery, face-to-face clinic (F2FC)/teleclinic (TC), or discharge.
Results:
This included 939 patients with a mean age of 70.8 years, Of the patients, 90.8% were listed for theater.
Conclusions:
The study demonstrated how much selfies can help in triaging the skin cancer patients, and it can be used as an effective way of providing care for the patients, which will significantly help avert delay in diagnosis and treatment.
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