Mobile teledermatology for Dermatological Care in Rural Nepal: Dermatology training of medical officers at primary health care centers

Abstract

Introduction: Skin diseases are common in Nepal but dermatologists are very few, and there is no adequate training for Medical officers to diagnose and treat common skin diseases. We developed a training program based on Mobile teledermatology and evaluated its effectiveness.

Methods: Five medical officers from 3 primary health care centers of Kavre District were trained in their respective working centers. They did 12 days of mobile teledermatology sessions in which they saw minimum of 60 common skin diseases in direct supervision of a dermatologist. Medical officers were involved in all aspect of patient care from history taking, examination of skin lesions, writing down the prescription to counseling and follow up. The effectiveness of training was evaluated by, difference in skin disease knowledge before and after the training, ability to diagnose and treat common skin diseases independently at the end of the training and feedback from the trainees.

Results: Altogether 337 skin diseases were seen by 5 medical officers. There was significant difference between the skin disease knowledge before and after the training (p-value 0.009). At the end of the session they were able to diagnose independently 87% (80%-95%) of common skin diseases. All of them strongly agreed that this is the effective way of training

Conclusions: Mobile teledermatology is the feasible and effective method of dermatology training to the medical officers at primary health care centres in remote areas, while providing skin care to the villagers at the same time.