Teledermatology

Resources to Use With Patients

• SPD Teledermatology Patient Perspectives Handout

• VisualDx short video on "How Teledermatology Works"

• Photo Guide for Dermatology

Discounted or Free Internet Access Options:
For patients with a parent who is a veteran and eligible for Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits, visit https://telehealth.va.gov/digital-divide.

A Federal government program called Lifeline (Lifelinesupport.org) lowers the monthly cost of phone or internet service. Your patient may be eligible to get Lifeline based on income or participation in a government assistance program. Please refer your patients to https://www.lifelinesupport.org/ to learn more.

Telehealth Education

New AAD Modules

Resources to Use With Trainees and/or Staff:

• Optimizing Teledermatology Visits Using the Skin-Know-Implement-Next (S-K-I-N) Checklist - From the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (JAAD)

General Telehealth Resources

Center for Connected Health Policy - FREE
The National Telehealth Policy Resource Center, federally funded, with state-by-state updated information on telehealth policy in your state, federal information. This site is policy and funding focused, and not specific to dermatology or pediatrics.

Telehealth: The Learning Series
Watch short videos that delve into basics, and then more detail of telehealth policy including prescribing, licensing and Medicaid reimbursement. Search for Telehealth 101, 201 and 301 or click "Load more" at the bottom of the page to see all of their content.

American Telemedicine Association
A membership based non-profit for advancing industry adoption of telehealth and virtual care, promoting responsible policy, advocating for government and market normalization, and providing education and resources to help integrate virtual care into emerging value-based delivery models. This site is more industry based, and addresses policy and reimbursement. This is geared for all telehealth, not dermatology or pediatric specific.

American Academy of Dermatology Teledermatology Toolkit - Included With AAD Membership
The AAD has developed a full teledermatology toolkit that includes how to get started, implementation, vendors, reimbursement and coding, and compliance. AAD membership-required access to the toolkit, which is dermatology specific.

American Academy of Pediatrics - Telehealth-Specific Resources Included With AAP Membership
The AAP has a mixture of free and membership-based telehealth resources for patients with handouts, great educational videos, plus resources for practices on overcoming barriers and then optimizing telehealth across communities. This resource is pediatric focused, not dermatology specific.

Telehealth Research Resources & Funding Opportunities

SPROUT (Supporting Pediatric Research on Outcomes and Utilization of Telehealth)

Looking for collaborators in an already robust network? SPROUT is pediatric telehealth research network under the Section on Telehealth Care of the AAP.

NIH grant funding has supported work by the SPROUT-CTSA Telehealth Collaborative Network to reduce barriers to telehealth research.
Check out the following AAP-SPROUT resources!

1. Publicly available tools that have been developed to support researchers include the STEM Framework (an evaluation & measurement framework for telehealth service), a framework for doing economic evaluation of telehealth services.
2. An ECHO series on tele-research tools with the didactic portion of each session available for review online.
3. An ECHO series on virtual inpatient services.
4. https://www.aap.org/en/community/aap-sections/telehealth-care/sprout/ or reach out to Christina Coleman (christina_coleman@med.unc.edu).

SEARCH Society. https://searchsociety.org/
The Society for Education and the Advancement of Research in Connected Health (SEARCH) started in 2016 as a small team of academics, researchers and clinical professionals. SEARCH has developed into a society with a goal to promote connected health programs through the use of evidenced-based research.

PEDRA (Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance)

Telehealth Advocacy, Outreach and Volunteering

Volunteer Opportunities in Teledermatology:
The following are Store-and-Forward opportunities with no direct doctor to patient contact.
Updated January 2023.

International
Swinfen Telemedicine
www.swinfentelemed.org
Established in 1999, the first international volunteer telemedicine platform is now in 96 countries. All administrative expenses are covered by donations and grants. There is a need for all specialties.
Prior volunteers experience: Usually no more than 4 cases a year. They are intellectually challenging. It is great fun collaborating with colleagues worldwide to coordinate care for patients with complex diseases, such as H Syndrome and lamellar ichthyosis.
How it works: You get an email and log into the system to answer it. You can communicate back and forth on a case.
Malpractice: U.S. malpractice does not appear to cover for out-of-U.S. encounters (from the one company we asked). Would confirm with your own.

National
AAD’s Teledermatology Program
Serves Free clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers.
How it works: Uniquely, this program allows for residents to see consultations first, then staff them with a board certified AAD dermatologist member. Training is free. The platform is on the web, but only available for Apple operating system on phones and tablets.
Malpractice: Staffing dermatologists need their own malpractice insurance. In some states this can be provided by volunteer options from the state for free.

Maven Project

For more information, direct potential physician volunteers to fill out an online inquiry form or have them contact the Senior Director of Physician Engagement, Jill Einstein, MD at jeinstein@mavenproject.org.
Serves Free Clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers.
How it works: Unlike the programs above, Maven does charge a small administrative fee ( a few dollars a patient) to the referring entities.
Malpractice: The entity covers malpractice for its members.

Volunteer Sub-Specialty Consultation via Patient Advocacy Groups
Some patient advocacy groups have volunteer expert opportunities for pediatric dermatologists to provide teledermatology opinions. These are not direct patient care. These can be highly educational for early career pediatric dermatologists to learn from those with more experience. Contact the organizations directly to connect with the physicians involved.

Foundation for Ichthyosis and Related Skin Types (FIRST)

The Vascular Birthmarks Foundation (VBF)

Telehealth Coding/Policy/Payment

Telehealth Policy Trend Maps

Coding for Telehealth Encounters

Teledermatology Code Quick Reference

State Telehealth Laws and Medicaid Program Policies

State Telehealth Laws and Medicaid Program Policies - Summary Chart

2025 CPT coding updates

Selected Publications of Interest

• Beer J, Hadeler E, Tamazian S, Nouri K. Effectiveness of pediatric teledermatology. J Drug Dermatol. 2020; 19(12): 1250. doi:10.36849/JDD.2020.5703.
• Bianchi MG, Santos AP, Cordioli E. The majority of skin lesions in pediatric primary care attention could be managed by teledermatology. PLoS ONE. 2019; 14(12): e0225479. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225479. eCollection 2019.
• Carton AM, Aldana PC, Khachemoune A. Pediatric teledermatology: a review of the literature. Pediatr Dermatol. 2021; 38. 39-44. doi: 10.1111/pde.14479.
• Geeta A, Khushbakht M, Joe J, et al. Pediatric teledermatology: a tool for combating dermatology care disparities. Dermatol Online J. 2021; 27(10). 8. doi: 10.5070/D3271055622.
• Kittler NW, Frieden IJ, Abuabara K, et al. Successful use of telemedicine for evaluation of infantile hemangiomas during the early COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study. Pediatr Dermatol. Published online June 22, 2022. doi:10.1111/pde.15040
• Mosquera RA, Avritscher EBC, Pedroza C, et al. Telemedicine for children with medical complexity: a randomized clinical trial. Pediatr. 2021; 148(3). E2021050400. doi: 10.1542/peds.2021-050400.
• Reingold SM, Hadjipanayis A, van Esso D, et al. COVID-19 era effect on pandemic and post-pandemic pediatric telemedicine use: a survey of the European Academy of Pediatrics Research in Ambulatory Settings Network. Front Pediatr. 2021; 9: 713930. doi: 10.3389/fped.2021.713930.
• Strategies for Evaluating Telehealth. John Chuo, Michelle L. Macy, Scott A. Lorch. Pediatrics Nov 2020, 146 (5) e20201781; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2020-1781. https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/146/5/e20201781
• www.hmpgloballearningnetwork.com/site/thederm/cover-story/pediatric-teledermatology.
• Pediatric Telehealth Best Practices, paperback by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), ISBN 978-1-61002-628-4. Available on Amazon and the AAP website.

SPD's Teledermatology Committee currently meets every quarter via Zoom. Please reach out to the Teledermatology Committee Chair, S​​​​​​haron Albers, if you would like to join us or have an interest/concern/fun new idea to share!