BACKGROUND: Dermatologic care was halted because of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, prompting us to study the usefulness of direct-to-patient teledermatology via a mobile application . We aimed to evaluate the service as a tool for avoiding face-to-face consultations, describe the main conditions diagnosed, and assess levels of patient and physician satisfaction . MATERIAL AND

METHOD: Prospective descriptive study of new patients who met the inclusion criteria . Descriptive statistics for all variables were analyzed with SPSS .

RESULTS: Of the 1,497 patients who agreed to participate in the study, 25% (n=374) sent an image to a consultant dermatologist through the mobile application . Sixty-four patients (17 %) were discharged directly and referred to primary care for follow-up . A face-to-face consultation was avoided for at least 3 months in 85% of patients (n=318); 87.1% (n=325) received a diagnosis and the dermatologist's level of confidence in this diagnosis was 7 or higher in 77.5% of cases (n=290). The quality of the images sent was considered sufficient in 52.1% of cases . Patients rated their satisfaction with a score of 4.5 out of 5 . Eleven of the 16 dermatologists rated their satisfaction as good overall . The most common conditions were inflammatory and melanocytic lesions . The main diagnoses were nevi, acne, and eczema .

DISCUSSION: Direct-to-patient store-and-forward teledermatology is an effective means of evaluating new patients . Both clinicians and patients expressed high levels of satisfaction with the service . Systems enabling the addition of digital images to patient records are necessary to ensure the efficiency of teledermatology.