Teledermatology-Directed Surgical Care is Safe and Reduces Travel
Jun
Abstract
Methods We conducted a retrospective chart review and identified 186 Veterans in the VA Corporate Data Warehouse as having malignant melanomas or severely dysplastic nevi during the four-year period of observation from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2013 and met inclusion and exclusion criteria for analysis.
Results Three hundred and sixty-six surgical procedures were performed for diagnosis and treatment of these conditions including biopsy and wide-local excision, of which 189 carefully selected cases were performed by primary care clinicians with 2.0% biopsy complication rate and a 7.7% wide-local excision complication rate. Cases not performed by primary care providers were referred to specialists (e.g