One-Year Follow-Up of Dermoscopy Education on the Ability of Medical Students to Detect Skin Cancer

Abstract

Background: Learning skin cancer detection skills is important, yet many medical schools lack a standardized skin cancer examination (SCE) curriculum. Objective: To determine medical students' skills in discriminating benign from malignant skin lesions on a 10-item image-based test one year after receiving a SCE intervention. Methods: Cohort 1 received SCE teaching only. Cohort 2 received SCE teaching with dermoscopy tutorial, and a dermatoscope. The same test was given to assess students post-intervention and one year later. Results: 43% (n = 145) and 38% (n = 143) of cohorts 1 and 2, respectively, participated one year later. Both cohorts improved or maintained their scores to correctly classify all lesions from post-intervention to one-year follow-up. After one year, cohort 2 maintained higher scores for successful identification of both benign and malignant lesions as compared to cohort 1. Conclusion: Medical students receiving a SCE intervention can improve their diagnostic skills after one year, especially with the aid of dermoscopy.

Teaching dermatoscopy of pigmented skin tumours to novices: comparison of analytic vs. heuristic approach

“…namely the heuristic method based on the overall gestalt of a given lesion and the analytic approach based on the description of patterns and specific criteria (clues). It has been shown previously that a short time teaching of dermatoscopy to medical students in general has beneficiary effects to diagnostic accuracy and is superior to mere clinical teaching . In our study, we could reproduce an equal diagnostic improvement compared to the pretest performance status irrespective of the method used for teaching.…”

“…It has been shown previously that a short time teaching of dermatoscopy to medical students in general has beneficiary effects to diagnostic accuracy and is superior to mere clinical teaching. 10,11 In our study, we could reproduce an equal diagnostic improvement compared to the pretest performance status irrespective of the method used for teaching. Since both didactic approaches had similar effects in teaching dermatoscopy to medical students, there are little arguments to favour one or the other method.…”

Enhancing Skin Cancer Diagnosis with Dermoscopy

“…11 Several studies have demonstrated that short training modules can improve the diagnostic performance of inexperienced dermatologists, general practitioners, and even medical students. 6,12,13 However, the training modalities have varied widely among studies and the ideal teaching method for beginners remains to be standardized.…”

Standard dermoscopy and videodermoscopy as tools for medical student dermatologic education

“…The ability to identify common benign and malignant skin lesions is augmented by the use of dermoscopy and is relevant to medical students pursuing careers in medicine, surgery, and subspecialties [ 1 ]. Medical students who received dermoscopy instruction as an adjunct to their skin examination education were more likely to examine a patient’s skin during physical examination when evaluated one year after skin examination education [ 2 ]. Standard dermatoscopes, utilized in the aforementioned studies, permit a single user to view skin lesions in greater detail by incorporating 10-fold magnification.…”