Cervical Cancer Screening in Madagascar: Usability of Mobile Telemedicine for Detection of Precancerous Lesions From Smartphone Photos

To assess if Smartphone may assist health-care worker (on-site) and to evaluate the diagnostic reliability and accuracy of cervical examination with smartphone photos of VIA (D-VIA) compared with conventional VIA, for women testing positive for human papillomavirus (HPV).

Material and method: On-site health care workers will be trained in VIA. Prescreened HPV-positive women will be referred to VIA evaluation, during which digital images with a smartphone (D-VIA) will be taken for later evaluation by a VIA specialist in Geneva linked by telemedicine. Women with positive VIA results will be treated with cold coagulation if eligible. Histological results will be considered as gold standard. The results will be analyzed with Cohen's kappa coefficient, Mcnemar's test and Bonferroni's adjustment for multiple comparisons to assess the performance of D-VIA.

Expected results: Based on the results of this project, the investigators will develop an educational training and quality assurance program for health providers for VIA and so contribute to a scaling-up of cervical cancer control. An appropriate triage by VIA will reduce not only an excessive referral rate but also an excessive treatment delay, giving the possibility of a "screen (HPV), see (VIA/D-VIA), and treat" program in a single or two visits.