Impact of a Community Intervention for Early Skin Cancer Diagnosis Implementing Teledermatology

The principal cause of skin cancer is sun exposure. In areas with high sun exposure levels, early diagnosis and sun protection education strategies must be developed. Aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of an early skin cancer diagnosis intervention implementing teledermatology. Transversal descriptive study on a population in the Western Costa del Sol. Primary care physicians were instructed on skin cancer diagnosis. They recruited consecutive at-risk patients and held four workshops for early skin cancer diagnosis and education on sun protection. The resulting variables on participants' satisfaction and intention to change were collected. 393 patients were recruited. The mean age was 52.9 years, and 65.4% were women. Suspicious lesions were detected in 24.1% of participants, and 11.7% were attended to via teledermatology. Of these, 65.2% were evaluated in person at the Dermatology Department. Fourteen basal cell carcinomas, 5 squamous cell carcinomas, and 2 melanomas were diagnosed. Regarding patient satisfaction, 67.7% found all aspects of the workshops of interest, 41.7% found the skin check-up of interest, and 26.4% found sun and skin cancer prevention information of interest. Of the patients attended to via teledermatology, 100% stated it was good or very good and 100% would consult again via this method. The intervention was successful in terms of participation, skin cancer diagnosis, and satisfaction, especially compared with other international campaigns. Therefore, although the data cannot be extrapolated to all environments, this initiative may be used as the basis for the development of future interventions.