The objectives of South Africa's electronic health (eHealth) strategy recognize the value proposition that telemedicine practices hold for rural and urban referrals, but a lack of accepted and formalized scale-up has impeded realization of benefits. While both synchronous and asynchronous teledermatology exist, these remain localized and not scaled-up. Skin pathology is often the first sign of an HIV/AIDS infection, which remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in South Africa. It is essential to replace the current inefficient dermatology referral process with a swift, organized, and efficacious one.
Reference:
Walters, L.E.M., Scott, R.E. and Mars, M. 2018. A teledermatology scale-up framework and roadmap for sustainable scaling: Evidence-based development. Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 20(6): DOI: 10.2196/jmir.9940.
Walters, L. E., Scott, R., & Mars, M. (2018). A teledermatology scale-up framework and roadmap for sustainable scaling: Evidence-based development. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10329
Walters, Laticha EM, RE Scott, and M Mars "A teledermatology scale-up framework and roadmap for sustainable scaling: Evidence-based development." (2018) http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10329
Walters LE, Scott R, Mars M. A teledermatology scale-up framework and roadmap for sustainable scaling: Evidence-based development. 2018; http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10329.