This month our focus is on the latest publication from the SCARD database and the large team of mainly GPs who have contributed to the brilliant work in SCARD. This really is “great research” and a “great paper” and I encourage everyone to read it, and be inspired by it.
The inspiration comes in two forms:
- Understanding that we can all contribute to ground-breaking research, and
- Recognising how we can all provide the highest quality care to our patients.
For me, the most encouraging aspects of the paper are that most of the management of the 589 patients was appropriate and in line with national guidelines. There is no place for unwarranted variation in health care practice – and the best measure of this is patient outcomes.
Most lesions were biopsied appropriately, most were treated by GPs (with the rest appropriately referred) and outcomes were outstanding.
This work supports the vital role that appropriately trained and experienced GPs (including skin cancer doctors) play in the Australian healthcare system.
Read the full research paper here.
- Prof David Wilkinson
