A new teledermatology platform will be accessible throughout Quebec this summer and will make it possible to resolve the problems of the 80,000 people waiting to receive dermatology services in Quebec in 7 to 14 days.
Posted at 3:08 p.m.
The tool will be accessible to family doctors who will be able to request a teleconsultation with a dermatologist by sending photos of their patients’ dermatological problems. There is no talk for the moment of allowing patients to send photos directly to dermatologists, although this option could one day be studied, explained the president of the Association of medical specialists dermatologists of Quebec (AMSDQ), the DD Dominique Hana.
The teledermatology platform project has been in preparation for more than ten years. “This is the most powerful tool to improve access in dermatology,” says Dr.D Hana. Dermatology is the medical specialty that receives the greatest number of consultations in Quebec.
Of the 700,000 consultations pending for all medical specialties in Quebec, 80,000 are in dermatology. This number is possibly lower in reality, since duplicates exist, notes the Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé. And these patients are not urgent cases. Telemedicine will considerably reduce this waiting list according to Mr. Dubé.
Between 50% and 75% of patients in dermatology can be treated by telemedicine according to the DD Hana. “It’s a specialty of the image. Based on visual disease analysis. She is doing well on telemedicine,” she says.
Already started
The teledermatology project has already been launched in six regions of Quebec for a few weeks. “The teams are now ready to welcome all the general practitioners and all the specialists,” says Dr.D Hana. The project will “improve the patient experience”, according to Mr. Dubé, who mentions that the software which allows this advance costs 10 million and is financed by the Institute for the relevance of medical acts (IPAM).
After developing very slowly for years in Quebec, telemedicine has grown exponentially during the pandemic. To the point where the College of Physicians of Quebec had to bring certain doctors, who abused teleconsultations, to order in 2021.
President of the Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec (FMSQ), Dr.r Vincent Oliva believes that “medicine will always happen in person, but telemedicine allows us to complete”. For him, the teledermatology platform “will allow us to facilitate access to specialized medicine”. And will also allow a transfer of knowledge from dermatologists to family doctors.
The Dr Oliva also believes that teledermatology is “the beginning of a new era” and that other initiatives of this kind could see the light of day, particularly in psychiatry and neurology.