Kirkdale Charlotte L, Archer Zoe, Thornley Tracey, Wright David, Valeur Mette, Gourlay Nicola, Ayerst Kurt
Boots UK, Thane Road, Nottingham NG90 1BS, UK.
ScreenCancer UK Ltd., Innovation Centre, Maidstone Road, Chatham, Kent ME5 9FD, UK.
Pharmacy (Basel). 2020 Dec 3;8(4):231. doi: 10.3390/pharmacy8040231.
Early identification and treatment of malignant melanoma is crucial to prevent mortality. The aim of this work was to describe the uptake, profile of users and service outcomes of a mole scanning service in the community pharmacy setting in the UK. In addition, health care costs saved from the perspective of general practice were estimated. The service allowed patients to have concerning skin lesions scanned with a dermatoscopy device which were analyzed remotely by clinical dermatology specialists in order to provide recommendations for the patient. Patients were followed up to ascertain the clinical outcome. Data were analyzed for 6355 patients and 9881 scans across 50 community pharmacies. The majority of the scans required no further follow-up (n = 8763, 88.7%). Diagnosis was confirmed for 70.4% (n = 757/1118) of scans where patients were recommended to seek further medical attention. Of these, 44.3% were ultimately defined as normal (n = 335) and 6.2% as malignant melanoma (n = 47/757). An estimated 0.7% of scans taken as part of the service led to a confirmed diagnosis of malignant melanoma. This service evaluation has shown that a mole scanning service available within community pharmacies is effective at triaging patients and ultimately playing a part in identifying diagnoses of malignant melanoma.
早期识别和治疗恶性黑色素瘤对于预防死亡至关重要。这项工作的目的是描述英国社区药房环境中痣扫描服务的接受情况、用户概况和服务结果。此外，还从全科医疗的角度估算了节省的医疗费用。该服务允许患者使用皮肤镜设备对可疑皮肤病变进行扫描，由临床皮肤科专家进行远程分析，以便为患者提供建议。对患者进行随访以确定临床结果。对50家社区药房的6355名患者和9881次扫描数据进行了分析。大多数扫描不需要进一步随访（n = 8763，88.7%）。在建议患者寻求进一步医疗关注的扫描中，70.4%（n = 757/1118）得到了确诊。其中，44.3%最终被确定为正常（n = 335），6.2%为恶性黑色素瘤（n = 47/757）。作为该服务一部分进行的扫描中，估计有0.7%导致了恶性黑色素瘤的确诊。这项服务评估表明，社区药房提供的痣扫描服务在对患者进行分流方面是有效的，并最终在识别恶性黑色素瘤诊断中发挥了作用。
