Utah Dermatologist Uses VisualDx to Help Gain Patient’s Confidence in Her Diagnosis

Dermatologist Jason M. in Utah tells us about a patient he saw in clinic with an “armpit heat rash”. He recognized the diagnosis immediately and used VisualDx to convince his patient of the diagnosis by showing images similar to his patient’s rash with VisualDx.

“During my second day of clinic at my first job after residency graduation, I had a patient come in with a chief complaint of ‘armpit heat rash’. I wondered if it would be a ‘please give me botox’ type of appointment as I’ve had a few times before with similar chief complaints. I listened to her story, and learned she developed red irritation, following which it would crust and turn into little brown ‘scabs’. She used crystal stick deodorant, and Desitin when the rash seemed to be appearing. She swore Desitin seemed to help. When I asked her to show me the rash, I probably jumped a bit in my chair when I saw the brown, pebbly plaques in her axillae. It looked exactly like axillary granular parakeratosis, though I’d never seen it in person before. I told her that’s what I thought it was. We discussed that it may be related to deodorants, or other products. She didn’t seem convinced. I excused myself for a moment to go research on VisualDx, my preferred clinical resource, what sort of treatments I could recommend. I was shocked that it said that zinc oxide is sometimes implicated, and that’s what she was using! I’ve been pleasantly surprised many times at how detailed yet concise VisualDx is in its disease pages. I excitedly returned to the room and discussed my new knowledge and plans. She still didn’t seem convinced of either my diagnosis, or the fact that perhaps the Desitin was contributing. My last recourse was to pull up VisualDx and show her the pictures of what I thought she had. She gasped and said ‘that’s it!’

I can’t count the number of times I have had nearly identical experiences with patients in clinic. Sometimes to help the patients, you need them to buy in to your plans, and VisualDx consistently helps me gain their confidence in the diagnosis.”

*Axillary granular parakeratosis pictured here is not the patient in this case. See more pictures of AGP in VisualDx.