Telemedicine

From November 3rd to December 17th Prof. Cesare Massone coming from the Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Graz in Austria, was in Manaus. He attended the routine activity of the Foundation of Tropical Medicine of Amazonas and of the Alfredo da Matta Foundation reading histopathological slides and participating to clinico-pathologic sessions. Moreover, at the Alfredo da Matta Foundation he presented three lectures on melanocytic nevi, melanoma and cutaneous lymphomas. Together with Prof. Sinésio Talhari, Prof. Luiz Carlos de Lima Ferreira,  Dr Carolina Talhari and Dr Antonio Schettini, he worked on several research projects on leprosy, leishmaniasis and deep mycotic infections, results of which will end in publications in scientific international journals.  

Beyond dermatopathology, Prof. Massone has also an expertise in telemedicine in special regards to teledermatology and teledermatopathology. He published many scientific papers on this topic and he is working since 2003 as moderator of www.telederm.org, a free available teleconsultation service in dermatology based on a Open Access Philosophy, a project founded in 2001 by Prof. H. Peter Soyer in Graz (Austria). As dermatology is a speciality with a wide spectrum of diseases and different entities, teledermatology allows the immediate exchange of ideas between health care providers and let physicians seek for a second opinion by colleagues with more expertise in a special field. For this reason, a specific web application for teledermatology and teldermatopathology (brazil.telederm.org) between the Foundation of Tropical Medicine of Amazonas, the Alfredo da Matta Foundation and the Research Unit of Dermatopathology, Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Graz in Austria will be implemented in 2009. The National Reference Center for Hansen’s disease, Department of Health Sciences – San Martino University Hospital in Genoa (Italy) and the Dermatology Group, The University of Queensland, School of Medicine, Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane (Australia) will also join the project. Besides teleconsultations, brazil.telederm.org will be an opportunity for residents in dermatology and students in medicine to learn from didactic dermatological and dermatopathological cases. In the telderm.org platform, a similar application between Graz and Africa is already running since 2 years (africa.telederm.org)