Background
The COVID‐19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of telemedicine, including teledermatology. Monitoring skin lesions using teledermatology may become increasingly important for several skin diseases, including low‐risk skin cancers. The purpose of this study was to describe the key factors that could serve as barriers or facilitators to skin disease monitoring using mobile health technology (mHealth) in older adults.
Methods
Older adult dermatology patients 65 years or older and their caregivers who have seen a dermatologist in the last 18 months were interviewed and surveyed between December 2019 and July 2020. The purpose of these interviews was to better understand attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that could serve as barriers and facilitators to the use of mHealth and active surveillance to monitor low‐risk skin cancers.
Results
A total of 33 interviews leading to 6022 unique excerpts yielded 8 factors, or themes, that could serve as barriers, facilitators or both to mHealth and active surveillance. We propose an integrated conceptual framework that highlights the interaction of these themes at both the patient and provider level, including care environment, support systems and personal values.
Discussion and conclusions
These preliminary findings reveal factors influencing patient acceptance of active surveillance in dermatology, such as changes to the patient‐provider interaction and alignment with personal values. These factors were also found to influence adoption of mHealth interventions. Given such overlap, it is essential to address barriers and facilitators from both domains when designing a new dermatology active surveillance approach with novel mHealth technology.
Patient or public contribution
The patients included in this study were participants during the data collection process. Members of the Stanford Healthcare and Denver Tech Dermatology health‐care teams aided in the recruitment phase of the data collection process.
Vojdani A, Vojdani E, Kharrazian D. Reaction of human monoclonal antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 proteins with tissue antigens: implications for autoimmune diseases. Front Immunol 2021; 11:617089.
Tailored public health messaging encouraging COVID-19 vaccination may help increase vaccination rates and decrease the burden of COVID-19. We conducted a three-part COVID-19 vaccine uptake public health campaign disseminated on Facebook between April and June 2021. Our first campaign focused on reaching Black and Latinx communities; our second campaign focused on addressing vaccine access and scheduling in Latinx communities; and our third campaign focused on religious communities. Overall, we reached 25 million individuals with 171 million views across the United States. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print July 7, 2022:e1–e4. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.306934 )
ObjectiveAlthough black patients are more likely to have advanced melanomas at diagnosis, with a 5-year survival rate among black patients of 70% compared with 92% for white patients, black people are generally not the focus of melanoma public health campaigns. We sought to explore awareness and perspectives of melanoma among black people to inform the development of relevant and valued public health messages to promote early detection of melanoma.DesignInductive thematic analysis of in-depth semistructured interviews.SettingInterviews were conducted with participants via video software or telephone in the USA.ParticipantsParticipants were adults from the USA who self-identified as African American or black. Recruitment flyers were posted around the San Francisco Bay Area and shared on our team Facebook page, with further participants identified through snowball sampling.ResultsWe interviewed 26 participants from 10 different states. Overall, 12 were men and 14 were women, with a mean age of 43 years (range 18–85). We identified five key themes regarding melanoma awareness in black people: (1) lack of understanding of term ‘melanoma’ and features of skin cancer; (2) do not feel at risk of melanoma skin cancer; (3) surprise that melanoma can occur on palms, soles and nails; (4) skin cancer awareness messages do not apply to or include black people; and (5) Importance of relationship with healthcare and habits of utilisation.ConclusionsAnalysis of these in-depth semistructured interviews illuminate the pressing need for health information on melanoma designed specifically for black people. We highlight two key points for focused public health messaging: (1) melanoma skin cancer does occur in black people and (2) high-risk sites for melanoma in black people include the palms, soles and nail beds. Therefore, public health messages for black people and their healthcare providers may involve productively checking these body surface areas.
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