Mobile teledermatology for a prompter and more efficient dermatological care in rural Mongolia

Dear Editor, Many developing countries suffer a scarcity of trained clinicians, who are usually concentrated in urban centres, leaving large rural populations essentially underserved. The adoption of technology could offer new opportunities for patient benefit in term of costs, better care and in turn, better outcomes.1 Telemedicine is a promising tool to ameliorate the widening healthcare supply and demand gap2 3 4 through which the reach of consultants can be digitally extended, allowing them to virtually cover larger or remote regions.4 Smartphone applications have been shown to be a simple, feasible and reliable method for performing store‐and‐forward teledermatology consultations in rural unpopulated areas. Our study aimed to estimate the distance, time and cost of travel saved by patients who received teledermatology service though a mobile phone platform in rural clinics in Mongolia, one of the least densely populated countries in the world.