LCCH telederm: Interesting case snapshots from the first six months of an Australian paediatric teledermatology service

Abstract

The state of Queensland, Australia has a paediatric population of approximately 1 million (1), physically spread across 1.8 million km2 (700, 000 miles2). Public tertiary medical services (including dermatology) are supplied by the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital (LCCH), located in Brisbane, in the most south-east corner of the state. Ensuring access to appropriate and timely paediatric dermatological advice to both primary care providers and regional facilities has historically proven to be a challenge. 2017 has seen the rollout of a new Teledermatology platform for the LCCH, allowing paediatric dermatology cases to be referred to the department for assessment and advice in a formalised process. We present a series of case snapshots from the first 6 months since its launch, from common presentations through tomore unusual referrals. These illustrate the utility of the program, allowing advice to be given over vast distances, potentially avoiding the need for the patient and their family to travel, and there by more efficiently triaging and allocating outpatient face-to-face clinic appointments. Further, we show how this platformis used for Medical education, to allow Paediatric and General Practitioner Colleagues to learn fromthe interaction for enhanced support and care for patients in their local environment.L6172835382017-07-17 <br />