Tele-reflectance confocal microscopy

Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) is a revolutionary diagnostic tool that enables rapid non-invasive imaging of skin tissue at nearly histologic resolution without biopsy. In the field of dermato-oncology, RCM has been successfully applied on melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers for diagnostic purposes, even in equivocal dermoscopic lesions where subtle cyto-architectural atypia is present. RCM provides the clinicians with a combination of clinical, dermoscopic and in vivo pathologic information that greatly increase the diagnostic confidence. RCM application in clinical centers dealing with challenging skin cancers, could be of great value for both clinicians and patients. However, the need of intense confocal training and expertise could represent an impediment for its successful application. Tele-RCM has been created to solve the issue of personnel training (e-learning) and also to offer a tele-consult among scientific community while improving diagnostic knowledge.