DE BENEDITTIS, MICHELE

PETRUZZI, MASSIMO

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Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Università di Bari

Vol. 123 No. 3 March 2017LETTERS TO THE EDITORWhatsApp: a telemedicineplatform for facilitatingremote oral medicine consultationand improving clinicalexaminationsdsome considerationsTo the Editor:Wewould like to congratulate Dr. Petruzzi and Dr. DeBenedittis for their study and Pentapati et al.1 for raisingthe debate regarding remote oral medicine consultation.We believe that the role of information technology inassessment remains debatable and that this gap has ledto a lack of scientific-based evidence. Nonetheless, ourpreliminary and recent experience revealed some mean-ingful improvements in information technology used toassess oral lesions and provide clinical support for phy-sicians and general dental practitioners. Our service,EstomatoNet, offers oral assessment and managementrecommendations to primary health care workers whohave no access to oral medicine or oral medicine spe-cialists. This service is an initiative of TelessaúdeRS-UFRGS, a project developed by the BrazilianMinistry ofHealth, RioGrande do Sul State, in collaborationwith theUniversidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. The serviceaims to improve primary health care quality and avoidunnecessary referrals to specialized services and,consequently, reduce referral queues.Unlike the experience reported by Petruzzi andBenedittis,2 our service relies on a cloud-based plat-form that stores information related to each case. Inour opinion, this structure is better for organizing dataand enabling auditing, which are important measuresfor distant assessment services. In accordance with theauthors’ opinion, before service launch, we were notconfident that it was feasible for the service to supportassessments via smartphone photos. To increase thepossibility of success, we created a protocol with basicclinical information and a photo recording tutorial forapplicants using the service. After a tele-assessmentreport, offered by EstomatoNet, a 30% reduction inthe intent of applicants to refer patients to specialistswas observed. Furthermore, approximately 90% ofapplicants were either very satisfied or satisfied withthe service. We will endeavor to further assess theaccuracy of the service in order to determine itsimportance.In our initial experience, we had no specific re-quirements with regard to the devices used. Therefore,a certain number of poor-quality photos submitted forevaluation were expected. However, among the first408100 evaluated cases, 94% of photos presented goodquality for evaluation. This corroborates the findingsof Petruzzi and Benedittis,2 who considered fewphotos to be of poor quality and not suitable foranalysis. Therefore, we disagree with Pentapatiet al.1 and assume that the type of device used doesnot interfere with photo quality and the possibility ofevaluation.Vinicius Coelho Carrard, DDS, PhDMarco Antonio Trevizani Martins, DDS, PhDDepartment of Oral Pathology School of DentistryUniversidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)Porto AlegreBrazilCynthia G. Molina-BastosFamily PhysicianTelessaudeRS-UFRGSPorto AlegreBrazilMarcelo Rodrigues GonçalvesProfessorVice-coordinator of TelessaúdeRS e UFRGSDepartment of Social MedicineSchool of MedicineUniversidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)Porto AlegreBrazilREFERENCES1. Pentapati KC, Smriti K, Gadicherla S. WhatsApp: a telemedicineplatform for facilitating remote oral medicine consultation andimproving clinical examinations-a commentary. Oral Surg OralMed Oral Pathol Oral Radiol. 2016;121:573.2. Petruzzi M, De Benedittis M. WhatsApp: a telemedicine platformfor facilitating remote oral medicine consultation and improvingclinical examinations. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol OralRadiol. 2016;121:248-254.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oooo.2016.09.228App, Cloud, andmore: in reply to Prof.Coelho Carrard and Prof. TrevizaniMartinsIn reply:We thank Professors Coelho Carrard and TrevizaniMartins for their consideration of our article1 andOOOO LETTERS TO THE EDITORVolume 123, Number 3 409appreciate their comments. Their service, EstomatoNet,confirms the importance of data sharing in oralmedicine in order to provide an initial assessment ofand support for patients and health care workers whodo not have access to oral medicine or oral medicinespecialists.Using a cloud-based platform could improve theeffectiveness of tele-assistance offered to colleaguesand patients to reduce diagnostic delay related to spe-cialists (the so-called doctor delay) and to share sub-mitted cases with other specialists.Recently, a new specific application for smartphonesdedicated to oral medicine has been launched: Doc-torOral, available in the iTunes and Google Play appstores. It is a free app that aids patients and generaldentists to define oral lesion and share opinions amonga panel of experts.The evolution of medicine (not only oral medicine)cannot ignore the data-sharing phenomenon. Aware-ness and correct use of clinical data exchange will beessential for the health services offered to doctors andpatients in the so-called global society.Massimo Petruzzi, DDS, PhDMichele De Benedittis, MD, DDS, PhDUniversità degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro”Clinica odontoiatrica -Sezione di MalattieodontostomatologichePiazza Giulio Cesare 1170124 BariItalymassimo.petruzzi@uniba.itREFERENCE1. Petruzzi M, De Benedittis M. WhatsApp: A telemedicine platformfor facilitating remote oral medicine consultation and improvingclinical examinations. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol OralRadiol. 2016;121:248-254.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oooo.2016.11.025

App, Cloud, and more: in reply to Prof. Coelho Carrard and Prof. Trevizani Martins

https://ricerca.uniba.it/bitstream/11586/181571/2/2017.%20app%20cloud%20and%20more.pdf

App, Cloud, and more: in reply to Prof. Coelho Carrard and Prof. Trevizani Martins

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