Ireland’s first rapid dermatology service launches to help cut waiting lists

By Laura Bermingham

A new dermatology service has launched with the aim to cut waiting lists for people hoping to see a Dermatologist.

DermView is a new chain of dermatology clinics offering Hi-Tech skin imaging by leading Irish hospital-based consultants, which aims to help patients on public waiting lists who have to wait for anything up to six years to see a Dermatologist.

DermView streamlines the process of being seen by a Consultant Dermatologist, bypassing the lengthy waiting lists that currently exist in the Irish medical system and ensuring a much faster diagnosis and treatment plan.

There are twenty DermView clinics in Ireland to date, soon to rise to 35, staffed by qualified nurses who use specialised equipment to take a photographic scan of a problem area of a patient’s body.

This scan is then sent instantly to one of the 15 Consultant Dermatologists working in the company.

The dermatology service is rapid and enables DermView to potentially make drastic cuts to waiting lists for skin conditions which, according to official statistics, stand at around 46,500.

Dr Rupert Barry, Consultant Dermatologist and Co-founder of DermView Ltd explains how the dermatology service works saying, ‘Your GP refers you to your local DermView clinic, who will take high quality macroscopic and microscopic images, along with your GPs medical history.’

‘The data will then be relayed securely to our platform where the case will be read, a diagnosis made, and advice on management given within a matter of mere weeks,’ he adds.

DermView CEO, Eoin O’Reilly says, ‘At present everyone has to go to a hospital to see a consultant. Under the DermView system, around one-in-four would only go the hospital route. Meaning each patient is seen by the right consultant in the correct time frame. Although we are currently a private service, we are seeing a large volume of public patients attending our clinics to avoid the huge waiting times to get a diagnosis and put their minds to rest.’

A visit to a DermView clinic costs €160 which can be reclaimed from certain private insurance plans, this compares to the current system where a patient pays €250/€300 to see a consultant face to face.

This article was first published on 10 December 2020 by Evoke. You can read the original article here.