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Health Initiative

Dermatology Diagnosis and Self-care Tool (DDST)

The background factors that have given rise to this project include the following:

frequency and burden of skin disease
The fact that citizens with skin diseases in Canada, especially in remote regions, face barriers to access to dermatologists
The fact that there are considerable waiting times to see a dermatologist throughout the country.

The aim of this project is to develop a Dermatology Diagnosis and Self-care Tool (DDST) focused on citizen-centric care, reduction of access time, and promotion of skin health. The DDST will be a web-based tool to be used by individual citizens to assist them in their skin self-examination, self-diagnosis, self-treatment, and self-education.

This project started in January 2004 and is expected to end in December 2006.

We expect our research to contribute to the following domains:

Consumer Health Informatics
Patient decision support
Patient education
Self-care

Our research results could have an impact on the following sectors:

Health outcomes
Healthcare access
Health indicators
Health Education
Economic outcomes

We are seeking academic, public and private research collaborators and/or partners for this project in the following domains:

Skin disease image database
Healthcare databases
Health citizen empowerment
Community-based health research

If interested, please contact the Research Officer listed below.

The possible applications of this project include:

Workplace-based formal health education programs
Independent use by individuals
Integration into hospitals, community health centres, family/social service agencies, doctors’ offices, and community access points
Integration into structured health education programs administered at “non-traditional” health care sites (supermarkets, superstores, and pharmacies)

The possible technical transfer opportunities related to this project include:

Patient-centered self-care tool
Patient decision support tool
Health information retrieval tool
Skin self-diagnosis tool

If interested, please contact the Business Development Officer listed below.

The research partners for this project include:

National Research Council (NRC)
Atlantic Health Science Corporation (AHSC), Saint John, New Brunswick

Research Contact

Dr. Yunli Wang
Research Officer
Health Initiative
NRC Institute for Information Technology
46 Dineen Drive
Fredericton, NB E3B 9W4
Telephone: +1 (506) 444-0552
E-mail: Yunli.Wang@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

Business Contact

Georges Corriveau
Business Development Officer
Business Development Office, New Brunswick
NRC Institute for Information Technology
55 Crowley Farm Road, Suite 1100-C, Scientific Park
Moncton, NB E1A 7R1
Telephone: +1 (506) 861-0954
Fax: +1 (506) 851-3630
E-mail: Georges.Corriveau@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca