Teledermatology Mobile App: Patient Facing

Completed

Conditions studied: Introduction of Teledermatology Mobile Apps

In brief

This study was designed to measure the impact of two teledermatology apps to provide direct to patient teledermatology follow up care, Patient Viewer and My VA Images, with a trial on access to dermatology care. The overall hypothesis was that sites implementing Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) teledermatology mobile apps would significantly augment the use of teledermatology and improve Veterans' access to skin care relative to control sites. Specifically, the investigators hypothesized that these apps would improve established patients' ability to follow-up with dermatology care remotely, reducing patient travel to dermatology clinics while opening up dermatology clinic space for other patients. Due to a lack of participation by sites during the study which was conducted during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the groups examined are Veterans who live in rural areas compared to those in urban areas. Previously the study included a parallel trial to evaluate another teledermatology mobile app, VA Telederm. This trial was no longer feasible within this study's funding timeline due to limitations imposed on the mobile app by Office of Information \& Technology that were not under the control of the PI or the operational partner, Office of Connected Care (OCC).

Key facts

Study ID

NCT03241589

Run by

VA Office of Research and Development

People needed

466

Starts

2019-05-13

Expected to finish

2020-12-31

Last updated by the study team

2026-08-06

Who can join

Age: any. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• The inclusion criterion for the trial with direct to patient facing apps was that a site had greater than or equal to 9% of all Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 dermatology encounters under secondary stop codes 695/696.
• This indicated considerable pre-existing experience with consultative teledermatology and the likely presence of dermatology reader and support personnel needed to implement direct to patient facing apps.
• The investigators identified 31 sites eligible for direct to patient facing apps.
• We followed above criteria but due to low enrollment, an additional criteria was added that patients were included if they received a request to use the patient-facing mobile app.

You may not qualify if…

• VA medical centers with no 695/696 stop code activity in FY2018 or with zero full-time equivalent dermatologists were excluded since these sites likely lacked the expertise, support, and infrastructure to feasibly adopt teledermatology during the study period.
• The investigators also excluded sites outside the continental U.S., and sites without a dermatology clinic.

Where it is running

• San Francisco VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA — San Francisco, California, United States
• Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC — Durham, North Carolina, United States
• Providence VA Medical Center, Providence, RI — Providence, Rhode Island, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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