Evaluating the Diagnostic Interrater Reliability between Virtual and In-person Sick-call Examinations at a Military Dental Treatment Facility
Abstract
Teledentistry, also known as "virtual" dental examinations, is an innovative approach to increasing access to care. The objective of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic interrater reliability between virtual and in-person examinations for patients seeking emergency dental care (sick call) at a military dental treatment facility. One hundred subjects received both virtual and in-person examinations on the same day, in a random order. The virtual examiner and subject were stationed in separate rooms and used only a laptop equipped with a camera, microphone, and speaker to complete the virtual exam. In contrast, the in-person examiner had access to all standard care modalities in a dental treatment room. After the first encounter, the subject proceeded to the corresponding virtual or in-person exam, and both examiners determined a diagnosis. Interrater agreement was determined between the two encounters for both diagnosis specialty category and diagnostic code using the Kappa coefficient. The results of the interrater analyses showed a Kappa of 0.644 for diagnosis specialty category (p<0.001)and a Kappa of 0.714 for diagnostic codes (p<0.001). Both analyses indicated" substantial" agreement. We conclude that teledentistry can be an effective tool for determining a diagnosis and improving access to care for dental emergencies at military dental treatment facilities.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 19, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1222425
Entities
People
- Amar Kosaraju
- Joseph Gedge
- Kraig Vandewalle
- Sharon Aradine
- Terrell Mitchell
- Vladimir Vader
Organizations
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences