Sociodemographics of patients in a rural psychocutaneous clinic with telemedicine integration

Summary: Abstract Body: Our study establishes the sociodemographics of patients seen at a rural psychocutaneous clinic with telemedicine integration in New England and discusses the scalability of such a model. There are few psychodermatology clinics in the United States, with the majority located in urban areas. Literature regarding patient demographics, clinic characteristics, and general feasibility of a rural psychodermatology clinic is therefore extremely limited. A retrospective cohort study of 47 patients seen at our clinic was conducted. All patients who attended the clinic between November 2019 and August 2024 were included in the study. Of 102 patients referred to our clinic, 47 attended for a total of 117 visits. Patients were predominantly female (80.9%); White, and non-Hispanic, with a median age of 54 years. The most common diagnoses were excoriation disorder (51.1%) and delusions of parasitosis (29.8%). More than half had psychiatric comorbidities (55.3%) and dermatological comorbidities (51.1%), and 34.8% had a history of substance use. Telehealth was used for 18.4% of visits. Most patients had private insurance (42.6%), followed by Medicare (36.2%) and Medicaid (19.1%). Only one patient was uninsured. Psychodermatology clinics address an important gap in care that exists for patients with complex psycho-dermatologic conditions requiring integrated treatment. This study demonstrates the feasibility of this model in a rural setting. Telehealth integration provided a valuable means of dismantling barriers to care for patients. Rural healthcare providers may be able to scale this model to establish psychodermatology clinics of their own via collaboration between local dermatologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists, the use of telemedicine, and the utilization of existing local infrastructures. Veronica Voronina¹, Sarah J. Lange¹, Jennifer K. Shah¹, Nardin Awad², Matthew S. Duncan³, Michael S. Chapman² 1. Dartmouth College Geisel School of Medicine, Hanover, NH, United States. 2. Dermatology, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, United States. 3. Psychiatry, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, United States. Clinical Research: Epidemiology and Observational Research