title: Impact of skin cancer education on general practitioners' diagnostic skills.
abstract: Seventeen general practitioners (GPs) were evaluated to assess their ability to recognize malignant, borderline and benign skin lesions before and after a novel, cheap and quick skin cancer educational programme. They were tested without prior warning on two occasions using two sets of 30 clinical slides. Between each test the GPs were given a lecture based on an illustrated booklet of similar lesions. The results showed an improvement in the GPs' diagnostic skills (P < 0.05), but nevertheless a wide variation in diagnostic ability between GPs remained. Our study highlights a simple, effective and inexpensive method for teaching GPs the diagnostic clinical features of skin cancer. Further work is needed to improve their diagnostic accuracy in the long term.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Medical Centre, St. Helier Hospital, Carshalton, UK.
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Bedlow
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cliff
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Melia
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Moss
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Seyan
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Harland
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D003880:Dermatology / Q000193:education*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000379:methods*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*