Leao J C, Porter S R
Department of Oral Medicine, Eastman Dental Institute for Oral Health Care Sciences, University of London, England.
Braz Dent J. 1999;10(1):47-53.
Computers have increasingly found application in dentistry over the past 15 years, but at present there has been no investigation of the application of the Internet for distance diagnosis purposes in oral medicine. As a consequence, the objective of this article was to determine the acceptability to patient and clinician of the distant diagnosis of common orofacial diseases using the Internet. The study group comprised 20 patients who attended the Oral Medicine unit of the Eastman Dental Institute and Hospital, London, UK, for the diagnosis and management of oral mucosal diseases. Digital images of each patient's oral mucosal lesion were captured and stored on a personal computer and later transmitted via the Internet to a distant site. Patients were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire detailing their opinion of the use of an intra-oral camera and a group of clinicians were asked to compare and contrast the original and transmitted images. The majority of patients found the procedure of recording images of their mouth very comfortable, were happy to view the inside of their mouths, and found the procedure generally useful in understanding their clinical problem. The clinicians were often not able to differentiate between the original and transmitted image but were able to accurately diagnose the patient's oral mucosal problems in 64% of the instances. The results of the present study suggest that telediagnosis of orofacial disease may be a feasible prospect.
在过去15年里，计算机在牙科领域的应用越来越广泛，但目前尚未有关于互联网在口腔医学远程诊断方面应用的研究。因此，本文的目的是确定利用互联网对常见口腔颌面疾病进行远程诊断时患者和临床医生的接受程度。研究组由20名患者组成，他们前往英国伦敦伊斯特曼牙科研究所和医院的口腔医学科诊断和治疗口腔黏膜疾病。拍摄了每位患者口腔黏膜病变的数字图像并存储在个人电脑上，随后通过互联网传输到远程站点。患者被要求填写一份自填式问卷，详细说明他们对使用口腔内摄像头的看法，一组临床医生被要求比较和对比原始图像和传输的图像。大多数患者觉得拍摄口腔图像的过程非常舒适，乐意查看自己口腔内部，并且认为该过程总体上有助于理解自己的临床问题。临床医生常常无法区分原始图像和传输的图像，但在64%的情况下能够准确诊断出患者的口腔黏膜问题。本研究结果表明，口腔颌面疾病的远程诊断可能是一个可行的前景。
