Digital Dermatology pathway for primary care launched in Scotland

Technology to allow faster diagnosis and assessment of skin conditions is being rolled out across primary care in Scotland, starting with Dumfries and Galloway and Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Using a secure mobile phone app from Consultant Connect, the new national Digital Dermatology Pathway enables primary care clinicians to use phone cameras to take images of patients’ skin conditions at the point of referral to dermatology, with the potential to speed up diagnosis and improve waiting times.

Images are securely stored centrally on the National Digital Platform for Health and Social Care before being attached to their GP referral on the national Scottish Care Information (SCI) gateway referral system.

The use of digital images as part of the referral allows senior dermatology decision-makers to triage, diagnose and assess skin conditions without the patient being physically present.

The aim is for the app to be deployed in all health boards nationally by Spring 2025.

Dr Beth Kerr, GP locum and primary care clinical lead for the programme, said: “This tool has been designed with primary care needs as a priority, which has been very welcome.

“This pathway is to help us to best help our patients with dermatology problems.

“The app is intuitive and easy to use and gives the opportunity to quickly take images which are then seamlessly added to our SCI gateway dermatology referrals with a few clicks.

“The process is safe and secure allowing us to use the app with confidence. Adding an image ensures referrals are as informative as possible for secondary care enabling them to triage patient referrals effectively and efficiently.

“This in turn will bring benefit back to ourselves and improve our patients’ journey, which I look forward to seeing realised soon.”

The national pathway is backed by £1.8m of funding from the Scottish government’s chief scientist office and is one of the first innovations to be approved for national rollout through the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) Pathway.

The app was rolled out at Tollcross Medical Centre and Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership practices, part of the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board, on 11 November 2024, with the remaining practices planning to deploy the solution from the end of November.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway’s Greencroft and Gillbrae medical practices also went live on 11 November 2024, with the other practices set to follow suit.

Neil Gray, Scotland’s health secretary, said: “The national adoption of innovations, such as the Digital Dermatology pathway, will be critical to delivering our vision of a Scotland where people live longer, healthy and fulfilling lives.

“This is an important first step to rolling out a new service which has the potential to significantly reduce waiting times and improve patient outcomes in a specialty that we know is one of the busiest with demand for outpatient appointments.”

In October 2024, the Scottish government says that its plan for a Digital Front Door platform “goes beyond” the NHS App because it will include access to both health and social care data and services.