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ABSTRACT
Background: There is a great need for dermatologic care in developing countries, but providing dermatologic care to a large, diverse, and economically challenged group of patients in a developing nation can be a daunting and somewhat overwhelming task. When only a limited number of providers are available that are skilled in diagnosing and treating dermatologic diseases, a system is necessary to educate volunteer physicians and other local paramedicals in this discipline in order to increase the number of trained individuals available to see this large body of patients needing treatment.
Objective: To establish an effective electronic tool that would be effective in training international volunteers and local paramedicals to more effectively diagnose and treat dermatological diseases. To tool would ideally provide the following: 1) high quality images of common and atypical disease presentations 2) a basic overview of the disease process 3) treatment options appropriate for the country 4) the ability to be updated as new information, photographs, or treatment options became available 6) the ability for the volunteers and paramedical to test themselves on the material 7) additional literature or resources that may be consulted.
Methods: Existing software on Mayo Clinic’s proprietary web based DIEL (Digital Image Electronic Library) was accessed and used to upload dermatologic images, patient histories, pertinent disease information, and relevant teaching questions for various dermatological diseases. SNOMED CT, a national standard ontology for health, was used to index the content for improved retrieval of relevant cases and potentially linkage of teaching material to the clinical record.
Results: A Mayo proprietary dermatologic specific web-based teaching tool (Dermatologic-Digital Image Education Library or Derm-DIEL) was developed.
Derm-DIEL serves as a model for an electronic teaching tool that provides high quality images, pertinent questions, disease overviews, and relevant sources, all of which allow Derm-DIEL to be used as an effective teaching tool.
An electronic tool (Derm-DIEL) has been developed that we feel will be effective in training international volunteers and local paramedicals to more effectively diagnose and treat dermatological diseases. We believe that a system such as Derm-DIEL should be an important consideration for training volunteers and paramedicals in order that dermatologic care be more easily extended to larger numbers. |
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