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1.
Visual Studies ; 38(2):293-297, 2023.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20237494

ABSTRACT

This essay briefly explores some aspects of the relationship between epidemics and their visual representations. Subscribed to the case of COVID-19, a number of lyrical photographs, and their visual strategies, are presented as a tentative answer to some problematics related to the sickness-representation dynamics specific to this pandemic.

2.
European Journal of Housing Policy ; 23(2):313-337, 2023.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20236914

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 policy responses have intensified the use of housing as a spatial and material defence against community spread of infection. In so doing, they have focussed attention upon pre-existing inequalities and the effects of socio-economic management of COVID-19. This paper draws upon individual households' accounts to explore these effects on housing inequalities, and then adapts a critical resilience framework from disaster response in order to examine the implications for policymaking. The empirical work centres upon a case study of lived experiences of COVID-19-constrained conditions, based on a longitudinal-style study combining semi-structured interviews with 40 households, photographs and household tours at two datapoints (before/during COVID-19) in Victoria, Australia. The study reveals how these households were impacted across four domains: (1) employment, finances, services, and mobilities;(2) homemaking including comfort and energy bills, food and provisioning, and home-schooling/working from home;(3) relationships, care and privacy, and;(4) social, physical and mental health. The interviews also indicate how households coped and experienced relief payments and other related support policies during COVID-19. Drawing upon literature on disaster response, we highlight the centrality of vulnerability and resilience in recognising household exposure and sensitivity to COVID-19, and capabilities in coping. From this analysis, gaps in COVID-19 housing and welfare policy are exposed and guide a discussion for future housing policy interventions and pandemic planning.

3.
Journal of the Intensive Care Society ; 24(1 Supplement):36-38, 2023.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-20236155

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Families of patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) experience significant emotional distress.1 Visiting restrictions mandated during the COVID-19 pandemic presented new barriers to family communication, including a shift from regular bedside nursing updates and in-person family meetings to scheduled, clinician-led telephone calls and video calls.2 This resulted in loss of non-verbal clues and feedback during family discussions, difficulties establishing rapport with families and risked inconsistent messages and moral injury to staff.3 Objectives: We aimed to design a system where all ICU family discussions were documented in one place in a standardised format, thereby clarifying information given to families to date and helping staff give families a consistent message. In addition, we aimed to provide practical advice for the staff making family update telephone calls and strategies for managing difficult telephone conversations. Method(s): We designed and implemented an ICU family communication booklet: this was colour-coded blue;separate to other ICU documentation within the patient notes;and included communication aids and schematics to help staff optimise and structure a telephone update. Using Quality Improvement methodology, we completed four Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles and gathered qualitative and quantitative feedback: this occurred prior to the project and at one,12,18 and 21 months post introduction. We implemented suggested changes at each stage. We designed staff surveys with questions in a 5-point Likert scale format plus opportunity for free comments. Twenty-one months post implementation, we designed and delivered an MDT awareness campaign using the 'tea-trolley training' method,4 departmental induction sessions for new ICU doctors and nurses and a 'Message of the Week' initiative. An updated version of the booklet was introduced in February 2022 (Figure 1). Result(s): Staff survey results are shown in Table 1. Forty-six staff participated in tea trolley training, feedback form return rate 100%. Following feedback, the family communication booklet was updated to include the following: a prompt to set up a password;a new communication checklist at the front, including documentation of next of kin contact details, a prompt to confirm details for video calls, confirm primary contact and whether the next of kin would like updates during the night;consent (if the patient is awake) for video calls while sedated;information regarding patient property;prompt to give families our designated ICU email address to allow relatives to send in photographs to display next to patients' beds;prompts to encourage MDT documentation and patient diary entry. Conclusion(s): During unprecedented visiting restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented an ICU family communication booklet which has been so successful that we plan to use it indefinitely. We plan to further develop this tool by encouraging MDT involvement, seek further staff feedback in six months' time, incorporate this structure into our electronic patient information system when introduced and collect feedback from patients and their next of kin at our ICU follow up clinic. This communication booklet would potentially be reproducible and transferable to other ICUs and could be used as part of a national ICU family communication initiative.

4.
Perspectives in Education ; 41(1):38-55, 2023.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20234675

ABSTRACT

University students' mental health and wellbeing has been a global public health issue of increasing concern in recent years, with a growing body of empirical evidence suggesting university students are a 'very high-risk population' for mental disorders and psychological distress. Pre-existing mental health challenges among university students have consequently been compounded by the global COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 20 students registered in the education faculty at a large urban university in South Africa participated in a Photovoice study. The research required them to capture three photos or images of their experiences of wellbeing during the pandemic. The findings showed that students experienced mental health concerns and disillusionment with higher education. Their wellbeing was associated with a sense of connection with themselves, their peers and the campus space, and the cultivation of resilience.

6.
Political Geography ; : 102842, 2023.
Article in English | ScienceDirect | ID: covidwho-2327694

ABSTRACT

In this paper I share insights and thoughts on the ‘doing' of creative practice for representing and communicating lived experiences of slow violence. Reflecting on two UKRI GCRF studies I have been part of in Cambodia, and which both harnessed creative practice in their methodologies, I focus specifically on the slow violence of over-indebtedness effecting garment workers and farmers during, but also pre-dating, the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper intentionally ‘makes space' for the films and portraiture photography from these studies to be viewed and exalted – the aim being to encourage political geographers to become more attuned to, and themselves embrace, the ‘doing' of creative practice. Together they show first how the ‘doing' of creative practice can deepen and add new dimensions to growing work on embodied relations and temporalities of debt and over-indebtedness. Second, the insights offered in this paper underscore the ethical importance of care, responsibility, and trust in geographical knowledge creation and the management of research projects concerned with slow violence. The paper ultimately impresses the dual value of the ‘doing' of creative practice and its myriad politics, and being more attentive to what can be learned through creative practice itself about the political geographies of slow violence encountered in people's lives.

7.
Rheumatology (United Kingdom) ; 62(Supplement 2):ii102, 2023.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2322287

ABSTRACT

Background/Aims Advances in rational drug design and recent clinical trials are leading to emergence of a range of novel therapies for SLE and therapeutic options in clinical practice are expected to broaden rapidly. The optimal real-world place of emerging and established agents will be guided by understanding their differential efficacy on specific SLE manifestations as well as efficacy for more resistant disease. Anifrolumab, a type-I interferon receptor blocking monoclonal antibody, showed efficacy in SLE in phase III trials with a notable effect on mucocutaneous disease although specific lesion subtypes and chroncicity were not explored. Severe refractory mucocutaneous SLE such as scarring discoid lesions are an important and common clinical challenge in current practice. We therefore prospectively evaluated the real-world efficacy and quality of life impact of anifolumab for active mucocutaneous SLE, recalcitrant to multiple biologic and immunosuppressant therapies. Methods Seven patients commenced anifrolumab (300mg by monthly iv infusion) following application to the manufacturer's early access programme (NCT 04750057). Prior biologic therapies were discontinued at least 5 half-lives in advance. Mucocutaneous disease activity was captured by Cutaneous Lupus Disease Area and Severity Index (CLASI) activity score and medical photography. Patient reported health-related quality of life comprising the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI);Lupus-QoL and EQ5D-5L were evaluated at baseline, three and six months. Results Seven female patients with active mucocutaneous SLE (Discoid LE n=5, chilblain LE n=1, subacute cutaneous LE n=1) and median disease duration of 17 years were evaluated. Median baseline CLASI activity score was 17 (range 10-26;higher scores indicating severe disease). Median number of previously failed therapies was 7 and included rituximab in 6/7, belimumab in 2/7 and thalidomide in 4/7. Rapid resolution of scale and erythema in DLE was established within 1 month of anifrolumab treatment. Improvements to chilblain lupus were evident by three months. CLASI activity score was improved >=75% in all patients at 3 months. Clinical responses were associated with significant improvements in DLQI (p<0.001) and EQ5D-VAS (p=0.002) by three months. Lupus-QoL trended toward improvement across all domains but most strongly for fatigue (p=0.01) and pain (p=0.002) by 6 months. One patient discontinued treatment after 4 months due to polydermatomal shingles complicated by sensorineural hearing loss. Infection coincided with background prednisolone dose >15mg daily, recent COVID-19 infection and new on-treatment hypogammaglobulinaemia (IgG <5g/L). Prolonged aciclovir treatment was required for lesion resolution. Conclusion We report rapid real-world efficacy and quality of life impact of anifrolumab on highly refractory mucocutaneous SLE, which exceeded that anticipated from existing clinical trial data. Findings suggest a unique role for emerging interferon targeting therapies in management of mucocutaneous SLE but emphasize need for enhanced VZV precautions among higher risk patients.

8.
COVID-19 and a World of Ad Hoc Geographies: Volume 1 ; 1:2003-2020, 2022.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-2326042

ABSTRACT

In early January 2020, the World Health Organization announced that a mysterious pneumonia like illness. It was first observed in Wuhan China and was likely caused by a previously unknown coronavirus. By late January, cases of the unknown virus had been detected in several countries throughout the world. In March of that year, the WHO officially declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. After overtaking many countries throughout the world in terms of number of cases and deaths, a national emergency was declared in the United States. Schools began closing, parks were empty, restaurants vacant, businesses closed, churches posted notices that in-person services were ‘canceled until further notice, ' stringent stay at home orders were imposed and the streets were deserted. As someone who has been taking pictures of street life for many years, the usual hustle and bustle of the street was eerily disconcerting. This photo-essay provides a glimpse of the responses, realities, silences, and reactions to COVID-19 on the landscape. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

9.
Journal of Investigative Medicine ; 71(1):89, 2023.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2319983

ABSTRACT

Purpose of Study: COVID-19 introduced a rapid shift to video telehealth patient visits. At our institution in Loma Linda, California, less than 13% of hand surgery patients were seen in person at the height of the pandemic, with the majority of patients being triaged to video telehealth appointments. This was challenging for the hand surgeon due to the complexity of a hand patient's physical examination. During this time, it was critical to rapidly develop, test, and implement a tool to assist the surgeon in evaluating and triaging patients effectively over video. The purpose of this project was to develop and implement a tool that would improve the effectiveness and efficiency of video telehealth visits for hand and wrist patients. Methods Used: We developed an informational packet that was sent to patients prior to their video telehealth visit containing a letter of explanation, a new patient questionnaire, and a step-by-step guide with photos for a virtual hand examination. The letter explained the guide's purpose and provided additional instructions to ensure visit effectiveness- remove jewelry and watches, find a space with optimal lighting, wear a short sleeve shirt, etc. In the virtual hand examination guide, we explained common physical examination maneuvers and The Ten Test to assist with virtual sensation assessment. A short "how-to" description in lay terms was given for each of the physical examination maneuvers and included corresponding photographs to maximize patient comprehension. Patients were instructed to read the guide prior to their video visit and to have it available during the visit. Summary of Results: We began to implement this tool in our hand practice for new and established patients in March 2020, and we have since found that our virtual hand examination has become more thorough and efficient. Surgeon satisfaction with this tool has been high, and patients have reported satisfaction and comfort. Patients have felt that it increased their understanding of the virtual physical examination process, decreased frustration, and have stated that they would recommend this guide to other patients scheduled to undergo a video telehealth visit. Conclusion(s): The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid shift from in-person visits to video telehealth consultations. This subsequently changed the way in which hand surgeons could evaluate their patients. The procedural changes that were adopted during the pandemic can be viewed as a sign of things to come, and we anticipate that video telehealth visits will continue to be commonplace in the future. In the wake of this change, we feel confident that this tool equips the hand surgeon well for an effective and efficient virtual examination and ultimately contributes to patient satisfaction.

10.
Borderlands Journal ; 20(2):1-3, 2021.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-2317685

ABSTRACT

Governments in many nations responded to these upheavals with public spending programmes on vaccines and medical equipment, and financial support for businesses and workers during lockdowns and public safety mandates. Taking a visual approach to borders, through the photographic self-representations of the study's participants, Biglin finds that legal status and a sense of belonging, being at home in one's space, do not correspond. BRETT NICHOLLS is Head of Media, Film and Communication at the University of Otago in New Zealand.

11.
Pedagogika-Pedagogy ; 95(1):108-115, 2023.
Article in English | Web of Science | ID: covidwho-2308698

ABSTRACT

The text examines various aspects related to the Photography and Pedagogy course, conducted with Erasmus students. The question of the content, organization and technical provision of the course in the context of conducting it in a distance format was touched upon. The difficulties and opportunities that the situation with the coronavirus has created are outlined, including from the point of view of the formalization of education and the creation of a new educational reality, which symbiotically cooperates the possibilities of formal and informal education.

12.
Frontiers of Narrative Studies ; 8(2):206-223, 2023.
Article in English | Web of Science | ID: covidwho-2311436

ABSTRACT

During the global Covid-19 pandemic, the practice of extensively washing one's hands with soap and water became ubiquitous worldwide. In this contribution, I look at how cultural references to soap have been productive in producing social identities in South Africa. By utilizing Nira Yuval-Davis's (2006) distinction between belonging and the politics of belonging, I trace how stories and narratives featuring soap that circulate in the South African cultural archive refer to specific cultural templates or social imaginaries. These stories and narratives perform different functions: they signify categories of social belonging, enable social subjects to identify with specific subject locations, and are utilized to both confirm and patrol the borders of these categories of belonging in acts that may be described as the "politics of belonging. "

13.
Lithic Technology ; 48(1):31-42, 2023.
Article in English | Web of Science | ID: covidwho-2311310

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic halted scientific research across the world, revealing the vulnerabilities of field-based disciplines to disruption. To ensure resilience in the face of future emergencies, archaeology needs to be more sustainable with international collaboration at the forefront. This article presents a collaborative data collection model for documenting lithics using digital photography and physical measurements taken in-situ by local collaborators. Data capture protocols to optimise standardisation are outlined, and guidelines are provided for data curation, storage and sharing. Adopting collaborative research strategies can have long-term advantages beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, by encouraging knowledge-sharing between international collaborators, decreasing emissions associated with archaeological research, and improving accessibility for those who are not able to travel for access to international samples. This article proposes that archaeology should use the COVID-19 pandemic as a catalyst for change through encouraging deeper collaborations and the development of remote models of science as a complement to in-person research.

14.
Vestnik Tomskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta-Filosofiya-Sotsiologiya-Politologiya-Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy Sociology and Political Science ; 69:177-186, 2022.
Article in English | Web of Science | ID: covidwho-2310961

ABSTRACT

The transfer of education in universities to distance and "hybrid" (which combines remote and classroom forms) models was carried out as part of the introduction of antiCOVID restrictions (the 2020-2021 academic year). The conditions of necessary selfisolation influenced all the aspects of students' life: from study sessions and work during extracurricular hours to ways of communication and spending free time. In this regard, an urgent problem is to determine changes in students' time budgets in the conditions of self-isolation in comparison with the " pre-COVID" period. For this purpose, a study was conducted, the object of which was 205 students of three universities (Southern Federal University, Don State Technical University (Rostov- on-Don), and V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University (Simferopol) over the period from November 2019 to March 2021. The method of self-photographing with the help of chronocards was chosen as the main research method. The accuracy of measurements was 15 minutes;the term for filling one chronocard was one week. An essay about the most memorable day and a written analysis of the subjective assessment of students' satisfaction with their time management were also used. The main conclusions of the study are as follows. First, the time allotted for studies at universities in the "pre-COVID" and "COVID" periods did not change significantly, since all three surveyed universities (within the studied areas of training) were ready to transfer to the distance teaching and learning mode. The difference in the time of university classes was preserved, due to the difference in the Master's and Bachelor's degree programs. Second, during the pandemic period, there was a contradictory tendency for further individualization and, to a certain extent, "encapsulation", isolation of individual time and, at the same time, expansion, increase, "verification" of time in the virtual space of the Internet. Third, the border between study, work, self-education, leisure and current everyday practices was destriyed during the pandemic due to the simultaneous implementation of various types of activities and increased use of distance learning, remote work and communication. Fourth, during the period of "anti-COVID" restrictions, the time that students spent on self-education increased, although mainly in the remote mode. The tendency for students to combine paid work with university learning continued. Fifth, everyday current household practices transformed into the hygiene of the home space and tended to take more time, due to a longer stay at home during partial isolation.

15.
Global Public Health ; 18(1) (no pagination), 2023.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2293238

ABSTRACT

This article compares the discursive construction of news values in English news reporting of China Daily and CNN about the COVID-19 vaccine, to reveal how the two media packaged the vaccine and improved the acceptance of the international community towards the vaccines made in the respective countries. Adopting corpus linguistic methods and Discursive news values analysis (DNVA) framework, this study examines news values through keywords, nomination strategies, and photographs. The results show that the two media outlets constructed the news value of Eliteness dominantly through a systematic combination of words and images, albeit in different ways. China Daily prominently consists of references to China's international communications in the production and application of the COVID-19 vaccine, at the same time packaging the COVID-19 vaccine as foreign aid to enhance diplomatic relations as well as protect and promote the order of the international community. In contrast, CNN chiefly demonstrates references to domestic medical experts and the well-known manufacturers of the COVID-19 vaccine, packaging the COVID-19 vaccine as the US' medical/commercial product. The respective ways in which they portray the COVID-19 vaccine have helped to bolster the acceptance of each country's vaccine by the international community.Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

16.
Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing ; 51(3):439-452, 2023.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-2290720

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the industrial, financial, and social aspects of our daily life due to the implementation of lockdown to protect against the spread of the virus. In addition, the lockdown deduced by COVID-19 has promising positive impacts on air quality and environmental pollution. This study aims to monitor the effects of lockdown on environmental degradation during the pandemic in Kabul city, the capital of Afghanistan, using geospatial data and a statistical model of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). To achieve the purpose of the study, the most essential influencing factors on air quality were generated from different sources using Google Earth Engine (GEE) and GIS environment;Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Normalized Difference Moisture Index NDMI) were calculated using Sentinel-2MSI, Carbon Monoxide (CO) was obtained from Sentinel-5P TROPOMI, and land surface temperature was retrieved from MODIS data. The generated thematic layers (before COVID-19, and during a lockdown of COVID-19) were weighted and rated using the AHP analysis. The weighted layers were spatially overlayed to obtain the final output. Consequently, the environmental quality degradation maps before and during COVID-19 were generated to assess the differences over the 22 districts of Kabul city. The findings of the study show that Kabul city is covered by the very low, low, moderate, high, and very high degradation of the environment by 3.17%, 5.33%, 20.54%, 26.63%, 44.32% before COVID-19 in 201,9 respectively, while the percentages are changed to 4.37%, 8.99%. 16.55%, 37.47%, and 32.62% during the lockdown caused by COVID-19 in 2020. The changes in the percentage of environmental degradation in Kabul city particularly in high and very high zones confirm the positive impact of the lockdown of COVID-19.

17.
3rd International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Image and Imagination, IMG 2021 ; 631 LNNS:761-770, 2023.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-2306372

ABSTRACT

The Prime Ministerial Decree of 9 March 2020 has caused the spread of social campaigns (#corona-virus, #iorestoacasa), whose ‘pandemic' effect has influenced the collective imagination more than the COVID-19 virus which, spread all over the world, has changed everyone's life globally. In a hyper-technological era, this microscopic virus has shown that even evolved communities are fragile, questioning many false certainties. The society of the global image has reacted and, as a symbolic language, has responded with countless forms of visual and multimedia communication (magazines covers, cartoons, comics, video clips) to spread new messages on social networks or television channels: to stay home, to renounce social life, to use quarantine to rediscover forgotten activities. This contribution examines the topic from a social and graphic point of view, analyzing contexts and languages such as: the proliferation of photographic images of deserted cities, which have portrayed the same places with different eyes and effects;the manipulation of the iconic and/or rhetorical force of artistic masterpieces or cinematographic titles, reinterpreted according to inspirations due to coronavirus psychosis, or of well-known advertising brands to obtain ironic puns with an equally ‘viral' effect;the redesign of the logos of famous multinationals in the name of the rule of social distancing;the creation of video clips to analyze, through the now usual video call screen, problems and typical behavior of the quarantine. The goal is to confirm how quickly the communication of the visual image on social channels was a favorable condition for learning the rules and behaviors to observe during the pandemic. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

18.
Journal of Investigative Dermatology ; 143(5 Supplement):S114, 2023.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2299082

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to rapid adoption of teledermatology. Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory condition that requires recurrent clinical evaluation and may be subjected to privacy concerns amongst patients when managed over teledermatology. We assessed dermatologists' perceptions of teledermatology in managing HS. Participants were invited to completed a survey electronically via a secure online platform. The survey was disseminated to members of the Asia Pacific Hidradenitis Suppurativa Foundation and through word of mouth, over February to June 2022. Demographics and survey responses were collated. Associations between demographics and attitudes towards teledermatology for HS were evaluated by multivariable ordered logistic regression. 100 responses were obtained comprising of 76 (81.7%) dermatologists and 17 dermatology trainees (18.3%). Older physicians tended to express sentiments that it was difficult to accurately assess disease severity for HS.There was increased tendency for physicians to perceive difficulty in managing HS compared to AD (assessed as a control cohort) - in terms of photography of sensitive areas (adjusted OR 4.71 (95% confidence interval: 2.44-9.07);p value < 0.001), accurate assessment (adjusted OR 2.66 (95% confidence interval: 1.48-4.79);p value 0.001), privacy issues from examination of private body areas (adjusted OR 2.75 (95% confidence interval 1.36-5.56);p value 0.005). This study, is the first, to our knowledge that assess physician attitudes towards the use of teledermatology in managing HS patients, and compares differential perspectives of its use on HS and AD patients. Physicians' efforts should be focused on streamlining patient selection and optimizing consult environments for patients with HS.Copyright © 2023

19.
Br J Psychol ; 114(2): 352-375, 2023 May.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2305328

ABSTRACT

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, which restricted our daily (visual) experiences, we asked people to take an ugly and beautiful photograph from within their homes. In total, 284 photographs (142 ugly and 142 beautiful) and accompanying statements were submitted and brought to light an intimate portrait of how participants were experiencing their (lockdown) home environment. Results revealed an aesthetic preference for (living) nature. Beauty and ugliness were also connected to good versus bad views, mess versus cosiness, unflattering versus flattering portraits and positive versus negative (COVID-19) emotions. In terms of photography strategies, editing and colour were important for beautiful photographs, whereas a lack of effort and sharpness showed up relatively more in ugly photographs. A follow-up study revealed that other viewers' (n = 86) aesthetic judgements of the photographs were largely in line with the original submissions, and confirmed several of the themes. Overall, our study provides a unique photographic window on our everyday aesthetic experiences at home during the COVID-19 lockdown.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Pandemics , Humans , Follow-Up Studies , Communicable Disease Control , Esthetics , Photography
20.
British Journal of Dermatology ; 185(Supplement 1):180-181, 2021.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2276092

ABSTRACT

Teledermatology is a useful tool in facilitating dermatology outpatient services since the advent of COVID-19. Assessment of lesions has become difficult to facilitate in large numbers. Teledermoscopy has been used for remote lesion assessment. However, the majority of teledermoscopy has been facilitated by healthcare professionals rather than the patient themselves (Vestergaard T, Prasad S, Schuster A et al. Introducing teledermoscopy of possible skin cancers in general practice in Southern Denmark. Fam Pract 2020;37: 513-18). Patients referred with lesions deemed to be low risk are now often initially assessed via telephone consultation in conjunction with photographs of the lesion. The majority of patients are subsequently called for dermoscopy. However, many of those referred have benign lesions and could be safely discharged if dermoscopy images of the lesion were available. Low-cost mobile dermoscopy attachments are available and have been marketed to patients for self-monitoring. We compared a smartphone-compatible dermoscopy device (Dermlite HUD) with traditional dermoscopic photography to assess the feasibility of using this device to photograph skin lesions. This device has equivalent magnification (x 10) to dermatoscopes, a smaller field of view (which in all lesions still allowed complete visualization) and employs polarized light. Dermoscopic photography using the Dermlite HUD was taken of 30 consecutive lesions over a 1-month period by dermatology registrars in the dermatology department. Lesions assessed included pigmented lesions, vascular lesions, nonulcerated skin cancers and benign lesions. Images were assessed by a consultant dermatologist and compared to dermoscopic photographs taken using the standard method employed in the department. Images were compared in terms of resolution, field of view and colour quality between the two instruments as per validated image analysis (Celebi M, Mendonca T, Marques J. Dermoscopy Image Analysis, 1st edn. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2015). The photographed lesions were assessed by a consultant dermatologist and compared with the standard method. Photos taken with the smartphone attachment were found to be 97% equivalent in terms of resolution, field of view and colour quality to those taken using the standard method and 29 of 30 were deemed suitable for remote lesion assessment. Low-cost smartphone dermatoscope attachments provide images of comparable quality to those taken with a dermatoscope and camera. This offers an opportunity to facilitate fully virtual assessment of low-risk skin lesions and is of use in patients unable to travel to clinics or during lockdowns to facilitate virtual clinics.

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