Forum for Nordic Dermato-Venereology No 3, 2019 Telemedicine | Page 21

Dermato-Venereology in the Nordic Countries Teledermatology in Norway – An Absolute Ne- cessity? C arsten S auer M ikkelsen 1 ,T homas T ernowitz 2 A rvesen 3 and K ristian B akke Research Lab, Department of Dermatology, University of Aalborg, and Private Dermatology Practice, Brønderslev, Denmark, Private Practice, Sogndal, Norway. Chief Medical Officer for the online AMS Dermatology Service, 2 Professor, dr.med, Department of Dermatology, Stavanger Uni- versity Hospital, 3 Resident in dermato-venereology, Department of dermato-venereology, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. Medical Officer for the online AMS Dermatology Service. E-mail: [email protected] 1 R easons N orway for the development of teledermatology in During the period 2005–2012 only 39 doctors were educated in Norway as certified dermatologists. The numbers vary sig- nificantly from year to year. At the beginning of January 2013 only 169 certified dermatologists in Norway were registered as members of the “Norwegian Society for Dermato-Venere- ologists”. Approximately 50% of the certified dermatologists work outside of the hospitals, either in private practice without reimbursement from the healthcare system, or in a so-called “avtalehjemmel”, with reimbursement. Of all the Nordic countries Norway has the lowest number of dermatologists per 100,000 inhabitants (see statistics, below, from the year 2000). Dermatologists per 100,000 inhabitants: • Norway 2.7 • Denmark 3.1 • Finland 3.3 • Sweden 3.9 Number of dermatologists in each region in Norway: • Helse Sør–Øst 44.1 • Helse Nord 1.4 • Helse Vest 7.3 • Helse Midt 7.2 Norway (total) 59.9 In Nordland and Finnmark, in particular, it is difficult to recruit certified dermatologists. Certified dermatologists recruited to this region from abroad may initially have difficulties with the Norwegian language and with computer systems, such as DIPS (eHealth system for Norwegian hospitals). logical problems, especially in Nordland and Finmark, is very long; in some places exceeding 50 weeks (Bodø Poliklinikk). Most of the current certified dermatologists in Norway choose to live in cities (e.g. Tromsø, Trondheim, Oslo, Stavanger or Bergen), thus recruitment to remote areas in northern Norway is very difficult. The waiting time for patients with dermato- The mean life expectancy in Norway will increase significantly in the near future. Age-related diseases, such as non-melano- ma skin cancer, but also malignant melanoma, will therefore become more frequent. Forum for Nord Derm Ven 2019, Vol. 24, No. 3 105