Photos cut cancer waiting times
The use of photographs and videos to assess whether or not patients have skin cancer has cut waiting times from two weeks to one day.
Doctors in north-west London are piloting the tele-dermatology clinic which has seen a 93% reduction in waiting times.
The majority of moles and lesions are benign but diagnosis' previously took up a significant amount of administrative and clinical time.
The project, which is funded by NHSX, allows consultants to ‘virtually’ triage patients within 24 hours with the use of high resolution images, video and data.
The pathway has been developed in partnership with Isla whose platform supports the sharing of high res images without the need for compression.
Neighbouring Chelsea and Westminster has already carried out more than 8,500 cases which includes a 10% reduction in non-attendance and 15% reduction in the number of minor operations.