A new clinical imaging centre has opened in Dundee, the second centre to be created as part of a project to improve access to clinical photography for dermatology patients across Tayside.
The Dundee Dermatology Community Locality Centre for Image Capture (CLIC) was set up at Ninewells Hospital outpatient department following the success of the first CLIC at Arbroath Infirmary, which opened earlier this year.
Patients can have high quality clinical images of their skin taken at the CLICs and sent securely to the dermatology team for review, reducing the need for multiple appointments and, for patients in Angus, reducing the need to travel into Dundee. The Dundee CLIC will also be relocated to a community venue in the near future to make it even more accessible for patients and there are also plans to open further CLICs in other areas across Tayside.
Lead clinical photographer Andrew Coon said, “CLIC Dundee builds on the success of CLIC Arbroath and will further enhance the teledermatology pathway for patients living in the Dundee area by allowing dermatologists to triage, diagnose and assess some skin conditions with fewer hospital appointments required.
“This will lead to a better and quicker service for patients, allowing clinicians to see patients in the right place sooner, and has the potential to significantly reduce waiting times.”
The CLIC programme has been established thanks to a collaboration between NHS Tayside’s dermatology, clinical photography and innovation teams, who worked together to create an innovative app for taking and sending images through NHS Tayside’s purpose-built medical image management (MIM) system. Introduced in the clinical photography service in 2018, the MIM allows real time, immediate access to medical photographs through a secure database.
Consultant dermatologist Dr Alyson Bryden added, “We are delighted to open our second CLIC in Dundee which greatly improves our ability to assess more skin lesions virtually using very high quality photographs and dermoscopy (specialised magnifying glass views). CLIC assessment frequently results in reduced waits for patients and feedback about the new CLICs has so far been overwhelmingly positive.
“These are pioneering clinics and are the first centres of their type in the UK. We are proud in NHS Tayside to have developed the technology, training and clinical support which has made this such a success and are grateful to all our partners who have made this possible.”