Jayaraman Chandra, Kennedy Paul, Dutu Gaelle, Lawrenson Ross
East Tamaki Health Care, Auckland, New Zealand.
J Telemed Telecare. 2008;14(5):271-4. doi: 10.1258/jtt.2008.080303.
Mobile phone images might be useful in after-hours triage of primary care. We conducted a study to identify population access to mobile phone cameras and to assess the clinical usefulness of mobile phone cameras. The survey was conducted among 480 patients attending two rural New Zealand practices. There were significantly more Maori owners compared to non-Maori (P = 0.002). Age was a significant factor influencing the ownership of mobile phones. We also conducted a clinical quiz among health professionals to assess how the provision of images on a mobile phone and on CD-ROM (to simulate the image that would be seen if email was used to transmit the images) influenced diagnostic confidence. Ten photographable clinical conditions were used to quiz 30 health professionals who were randomized into three groups of 10 each on diagnostic confidence. Images were found to significantly increase diagnostic confidence in all cases except one. It appears that mobile phone cameras are generally acceptable to patients and likely to be of practical use to rural practitioners in a range of clinical scenarios.
手机图像可能在初级保健的非工作时间分诊中有用。我们开展了一项研究，以确定人群对手机摄像头的使用情况，并评估手机摄像头的临床实用性。该调查在480名到新西兰两个乡村诊所就诊的患者中进行。与非毛利人相比，毛利手机拥有者明显更多（P = 0.002）。年龄是影响手机拥有情况的一个重要因素。我们还对卫生专业人员进行了一项临床测试，以评估提供手机图像和光盘图像（模拟使用电子邮件传输图像时会看到的图像）如何影响诊断信心。使用十种可拍摄的临床病症对30名卫生专业人员进行测试，他们被随机分为三组，每组10人，测试其诊断信心。结果发现，除一种情况外，图像在所有病例中都能显著提高诊断信心。看起来手机摄像头一般为患者所接受，并且可能在一系列临床场景中对乡村从业者具有实际用途。
