Evaluation of primary care physicians' competence in selective skin tumour triage after short versus long dermoscopy training: a randomized non‐inferiority trial

Abstract

Background Although primary care physicians (PCPs) play a key role in skin cancer screening, their skills in detecting malignant tumours is suboptimal. Objectives To determine whether a short dermoscopy e‐learning course (4 h) in skin tumour diagnosis for PCPs is non‐inferior to a long course (12 h) in selective triage of skin lesions. Secondly, to evaluate whether regular refresher training sessions are necessary to maintain the PCPs' skills in the medium term. Methods A randomized 2 × 2 factorial non‐inferiority trial was conducted online over an 8‐month period among 233 PCPs including 126 certified general practitioners, 94 PCPs in training, and 13 occupational physicians, all without prior advanced dermoscopy training. Participants were randomized 1:1:1:1 to receive short training and mandatory refreshers (n = 58), short training and optional refreshers (n = 59), long training and mandatory refreshers (n = 58), or long training and optional refreshers (n = 58). PCPs' skills were evaluated before training (T0), immediately after training (T1) to test the non‐inferiority, and after 5 months (T2) to evaluate the impact of the refreshers. The primary endpoint was the difference in the change of score after short and long training. The non‐inferiority margin was set at −28%. Results Among the 233 randomized participants, 216 (93%) completed T1 and 197 (84.5%) completed T2. For short versus long training, the primary endpoint was 1.392 (95% CI: 0.138; 2.645) in the per‐protocol population (p < 0.001) and 1.016 (95% CI: −0.224; 2.256) in the modified intention‐to‐treat population (p < 0.001). After training, the type of refresher showed no impact on the score (p = 0.840). However, PCPs who completed all refreshers showed the best mean overall score at T2 (p < 0.001). Conclusions These findings confirm that short dermoscopy e‐learning is non‐inferior in training PCPs to triage skin lesions compared to long training. After training, regular refreshers are important to maintain the PCPs' acquired skills over time.