Veterans' Willingness to Use Home-based Telehealth and AI for Dermatology

Home-based teledermatology and artificial intelligence (AI) are current and emerging tools for delivering skin care whose effectiveness partly depends on patients who are willing to use them. To assess willingness in patients, we randomly surveyed 10,013 Veterans who had received outpatient dermatologic care from October 2021-September 2022. 1,881 respondents answered every question regarding willingness on a scale from 1 (very unwilling) to 5 (very willing). Factor analysis of responses yielded single factor (mean score 3.6) and three-factor solutions corresponding to willingness for skin care by: 1) Home-based teledermatology (mean=3.6); 2) PCPs guided by a smart computer (mean=3.8); and 3) Smart computer-guided self-care (mean=3.5). The desire to avoid travel for skin care contributed the least to willingness to use technology. Multiple linear regression identified younger age and confidence in filling out medical forms (a surrogate for health literacy) to be consistently associated with greater willingness to use technology for skin care, while living with someone, financial security, and education beyond high school were variably associated with willingness. The results indicate that Veteran dermatology patients have modest willingness to use home-based teledermatology and AI for their skin care, and may be most willing to receive care from PCPs guided by AI.