Primary care melanoma screenings are accurate, Brown study suggests

A Brown University study suggests primary care screenings for melanoma have not resulted in increased misdiagnoses and overtreatment, a study suggests. 

The university states that malignant melanoma kills 10,000 people on an annual basis. Despite this, it is treatable if it is identified early enough. With this, some have encouraged primary care physicians to conduct screenings.

The study consisted of approximately 1,000 primary care screenings throughout the western Pennsylvania area. The study was led by Brown University professor of dermatology Dr. Martin Weinstock, who also serves as chief of dermatology at the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The team also studied screening prior to the initiation of INFORMED, an online course that trained doctors on how to perform accurate melanoma screenings.

“The early evidence from this screening effort indicates that melanoma screening coupled with a modified INFORMED training program neither results in large numbers of skin surgeries nor a dramatic increase in visits to dermatologists, which are two potential adverse downstream consequences that have been of concern as a potential basis of morbidity, distress and costs,” the study said.

The university states that a relatively small number of melanoma cases did not impact the amount of dermatological visits or surgeries. Increases in these can be attributed to other conditions independent of melanoma.