Surgical Site Identification with Personal Digital Device: A Prospective Pilot Study.

Surgical Site Identification with Personal Digital Device: A Prospective Pilot Study.

J Am Acad Dermatol. 2018 Mar 07;:

Authors: Chen L, Parsons AM, Aria AB, Ciurea AM, Patel AB, Chan C, Griffin JR, Nguyen TH, Migden MR

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Various means to facilitate accurate biopsy site identification have been proposed.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the accuracy of biopsy site identification using photos taken with a patient's digital device by a dermatologist versus professional medical photography.
METHODS: Photographs of circled biopsy sites were taken with personal digital devices by the principal investigator (PI). Another set of photographs were taken by a professional photographer. Secondary photographs were taken of the biopsy site location pointed to by the staff and PI based on the personal digital device image and professional medical photography, respectively. Based on secondary photographs, two independent dermatologists determined if the skin biopsy locations pointed out by the staff were consistent with the ones pointed out by PI.
RESULTS: Per Dermatologist A, the staff correctly identified all 53/53 biopsy sites. Per Dermatologist B, the staff were correct on 51/53 observations. Dermatologist C, the final arbiter, concurred with Dermatologist A in the two cases that Dermatologist B was not certain of the biopsy site location.
LIMITATIONS: The mean interval from initial biopsy to re-identification of the site was 36.2 days.
CONCLUSION: Utilizing patients' personal digital devices is a cost-effective, HIPAA compliant, and readily available means to identify skin biopsy sites.

PMID: 29524583 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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