Should the Skin Cancer Examination Be Taught in Medical School?

Skin Cancer Examination Teaching in US Medical Education

“…Previous studies have described targeted educational interventions that have improved clinicians' ability to diagnose and plan evaluation strategies for cancerous skin lesions 12,13 and that have increased medical students' self-rated skill levels for cancer prevention and detection. 10 Teaching of the SCE seems to be suboptimal in the 7 medical schools studied, based on students' self-rated low skill levels. This curricular deficit may result in new physicians graduating without a basic clinical competency and reduces the likelihood that new graduates will include thorough SCEs during routine patient examina- tions.…”

“…The student survey was adapted from one used in the prior study 10 of SCE education at Boston University School of Medicine. That instrument was modeled after existing instruments that measure students' prevention and detection skills for other chronic diseases.…”

“…A previous study 10 of SCE teaching was completed at Boston University School of Medicine in 1996 and 1997. The present study expands on that study and surveyed graduating medical students from the class of 2003 at 7 US medical schools.…”

Recognition of melanoma: A dermatologic clinical competency in medical student education

“…Clinical skills in dermatology are often underemphasized in medical student education. 13 Several studies have shown that students have limited clinical exposure to the specialty during medical school, [13][14][15] with one study revealing that 43% of graduating medical students had never examined a patient for skin cancer. 14 Educational techniques rely heavily on photographs to demonstrate the scope and breadth of dermatologic disease.…”

Teaching empathy to undergraduate medical students using a temporary tattoo simulating psoriasis

“…[4][5][6][7][8] Educating medical students about the impact of psoriasis can be a challenge as dermatology is often underrepresented in undergraduate medical curricula, limiting students' exposure to patients with chronic skin conditions. [9][10][11] Recently, we developed a series of temporary tattoos based on high-quality digital images of actual skin lesions. 12 These tattoos provide realistic, standardized representations that have been used in undergraduate medical education at Canadian universities.…”