- Sending selfies to a dermatologist may be as good as visiting them in person
- Study compared people who sent selfies to their doctor with face-to-face care
- Little difference in the percentage of people whose problem cleared over a year
- Experts said an online system for treating skin problems may work just as well
Madlen Davies for MailOnline
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Sending doctors a ‘skin selfie’ may help treat eczema just as well as going to a clinic in person
Selfies are often associated with self-obsessed celebrities and people who are just a little bit vain.
But they could help cure eczema and save visiting the clinic, according to new research.
Sending a doctor a ‘skin selfie’ may help clear the problem just as well as going in person, the study found.
Researchers found there was little difference between the percentage of people whose eczema cleared, or nearly-cleared, over a year .
This was when they compared people who sent a selfie to their dermatologist with those who visited them in person.
The study found 38 per cent of people who sent selfies of their skin to their dermatologist achieved clearance or near clearance of their eczema.
Comparably, 44 per cent of people who visited their dermatologist achieved this, a difference of only 6 per cent.
Experts concluded that an online system for treating eczema could be equivalent to face-to-face treatment.
Researchers followed 156 children and adults who had eczema, half of whom communicated with their dermatologists online after sending them selfies of their eczema, and half of whom who physically visited their dermatologist.
The differences in their skin was monitored over a year.
Published in the journal JAMA Dermatology, it was found the difference between the percentages of patients with their problem cleared or nearly-cleared was not significant.
Writing in the study, lead researcher April Armstrong, from the University of Colorado, said: ‘Health services delivery in dermatology is an exciting and evolving field.
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‘With the changing health care environment and a growing demand for dermatologic services, technology-enabled health care delivery models have the potential to increase access and improve outcomes.’
The news comes after two Australian medical students invented an app that uses a selfie to detect if someone is anaemic, and won a global competition in August.
The phone app – called Eyenaemia – screens for anaemia, or low red blood cell levels, when a user takes a selfie of their eye.
Eyenaemia identifies the user’s risk for the condition by analysing the conjunctiva, which lines the eyelids and covers the white part of the eye. The results can then be sent to doctors.
There was little difference between the percentage of people whose eczema cleared, or nearly-cleared, over a year when researchers compared people who sent a selfie to their doctor to those who went to a clinicÂ
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