Bridging dermatologists with patient advocacy organizations through smartphones.

Importance: Patient advocacy organizations seek to increase their benefits for patients with skin disease; low awareness and patient referrals among dermatologists have presented an obstacle to this.

Objective: To determine whether the Skin Advocate iPhone App would increase awareness and referrals to patient advocacy organizations in the Coalition of Skin Diseases (CSD) among Texas dermatologists and dermatology residents and patient registrations among CSD member organizations.

Design, Setting, And Participants: We present results of an institutional review board-exempted investigation conducted among member organizations of the CSD and among dermatologists and dermatology residents in Texas from April 1, 2011, through March 31, 2013.