Information for patients

What is ANIA?

The Accelerated National Innovation Adoption pathway (ANIA) is an initiative focused on fast tracking the adoption of proven technological innovations across NHS Scotland.  

ANIA brings together partners from across NHS Scotland and Scottish Government with complementary capabilities to identify, assess and deliver high impact innovations for deployment at scale, for the benefit of patients across Scotland.  

Who is this Digital Dermatology Pathway for?

The new digital dermatology pathway is for patients who are being referred from primary care to dermatology in secondary care.

What is the benefit of having images taken as part of your referral to Dermatology?

Having a photo with a referral allows dermatologists to triage referrals more efficiently.

Some patients might be scheduled straight to a procedure rather than a clinic appointment, others might not need secondary care at all so primary care and patient can receive reassurance quickly over for example a benign lesion.

This also means that the waits for a face-to-face clinic appointment should be shorter as less patients are waiting for this option.  

Dermatologists can also give advice on interim management, meaning the patient can receive some treatment while waiting for an outpatient appointment.  

How will this be done?

Images will captured by primary care clinicians. Clinicians will use their own device and take images via a pass-through app. The pass-through app requires a secure authentication process to access. The pass-through app enables images to be captured within with the users own phone but will never store the images on the user's camera roll or cloud. As soon as the images are captured and transmitted, they disappear.  

Is the app only for clinicians?

Yes, the app is only for use by clinicians, patients will not be able to capture their own images using the app. 

When will this be available in my Health Board?

The rollout of the new dermatology pathway will begin with early adopting Health Boards in November 2024 with all Health Boards live by March 2025.

Is patient data safe? 

Patient data is shared securely between primary care practitioner(s) and specialist dermatology services in line with General Data Protection Regulations.

Images of patient’s skin concerns will never be stored on mobile phone devices in primary care.