Effect of a Dermoscopy Training Course on the Accuracy of Primary Care Physicians in Diagnosing Pigmented Lesions

It is important that primary care physicians (PCP) are able to differentiate between benign and malignant skin lesions and know when excision or referral to a specialist is required. It has been shown that PCP who decide to treat a skin lesion themselves submit only 60% of all excised skin lesions for histopathology (1, 2). Furthermore, some studies (3–5) found a 30% discrepancy between clinical diagnosis by PCP and histopathological examination. The sensitivity of correct diagnosis of melanoma among PCP was in the range 17–60% (5, 6); thus there is a room for improvement. The diagnostic accuracy of pigmented skin lesions (PSL) increases significantly when dermoscopy is used alongside clinical examination (7). However, diagnostic accuracy drops when dermoscopy is used without adequate training (8, 9). A few studies have investigated the effects of a dermoscopy training course for PCP (10, 11). The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of a dermoscopy training course on the ability of PCP in identifying pigmented skin lesions and choosing the correct therapeutic strategy. © 2017 Acta Dermato-Venereologica.