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

K.B. and S.S.‐A. contributed equally. Funding sources: This research is sponsored in part of National science Council Project no. NSC 101‐2923‐E‐038 ‐001 ‐MY2, Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), Taiwan, under grant MOHW103‐TD‐B‐111‐01 and Taipei Medical University under grant 101TMU‐SHH‐21. Conflicts of interest: none declared. 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.