3 ways VisualDx boosts my confidence and saves me time as a nurse practitioner

Imagine you’re sipping (okay, realistically, chugging) your caffeinated beverage of choice in the morning as you log into your computer to take a peek at your schedule. Now think about what appointment type is guaranteed to drop ice-cold dread right into the pit of your stomach, because we for sure all have one.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the cool thing about working in primary care is that we get to learn about and see a little bit of everything. But at the same time, the brutal part is we have to learn about and see a little bit of everything.

We all have something we struggle with. And for me, that’s dermatology.

Sure, we do our best to learn in school, but that’s a lot of information to pack into just a couple short years. Once we start working and try to find our footing, it can just be super overwhelming. So how can you possibly keep up with all the new information you suddenly need to know?

My best tip for tackling that is podcasts, like my favorites American Family Physician, Curbsiders, and Primary Care RAP. You can listen to episodes while you are on your way to work or doing chores, and they are a wonderful tool to help keep you up to date with all the different specialties you need to learn.

You know what specialty isn’t exactly suited for podcasts? That’s right: also derm.

Someone describing to me what a macular rash looks like does not in any way do justice to the actual skin condition. It’s also incredibly difficult to take into account variations in skin tone and type just by describing it. There had to be a better way.

VisualDx decided to find that better way and become such a cool and—most importantly—actually helpful tool for me.

Dermatology has long been my most-dreaded appointment type, most likely because it was the most removed from my practice as a nurse practitioner; In the hospital we just slapped steroids and antifungal ointment on everything and hoped it worked. So, when I started my FNP career, I had a lot of catching up to do—not only because the nuance of managing skin issues was so new to me, but also because it involves so much visual identification skill that I just hadn’t honed yet.

Enter VisualDx and the three features that help me save time and make more confident decisions:

1. The massive image library highlighting skin conditions on the full spectrum of skin tones. Now I no longer need to haul my dermatology book into the room with me to compare images with my patient’s arm rash.
2. DermExpert, the AI feature. I can just take a picture of the lesion, and the app quickly provides several differentials as starting points, saving me precious time in appointments that are already too short.
3. The guided workup. Who on Earth doesn’t like a good flow chart? I can enter information and the app helps me narrow down what I’m actually looking at.

Using a tool like VisualDx has enabled me to treat my patients with skin concerns in a much more comprehensive way, reducing the number of times I have to send people elsewhere. It improves my overall workflow and confidence as a family nurse practitioner.

TLDR: I struggle hardcore with derm, and if you do too, then there is no better tool for helping you diagnose and treat than VisualDx.