Designing and Building a Teledermatology System

Background and Teledermatology means specialized skin care (diagnosis, treatment and follow-up) using information technology and telecommunications. This system facilitates communication between patients, doctors, nurses and primary care providers with dermatologists. The purpose of this study was to design and build a software for remote diagnosis of skin diseases. In the first phase of study, based upon a literature review, a questionnaire was designed to determine the items needed for software design and was completed by dermatologists in Razi Hospital. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics in SPSS V.19. In next phase, according to the results of first phase, the prototype was designed and Think Aloud usability test was applied. Then, the final version of the software was designed. In the section of patient's identity, the respondents listed all data elements except the National Identification Number, address, and weight. They also suggested patient's job as an essential item. All items for clinical data and functionality of the software were found necessary. Considering the results obtained from the questionnaires and usability test, the final version of the web-based store and forward software was created. This kind of platform could help dermatologists in providing rapid diagnosis and treatment plan for each patient since it enables electronic transmission of patient images and clinical history. Also, this system requires limited technical equipment and is cheap to run which could be applied with little training to nurses or referral physicians.