Unite Funding Expanding Access to Skin Cancer Screening Outside of the CSRA

Skin cancer remains the most common cancer in the United States, with over 100,000 diagnoses projected in 2025 according to the American Cancer Society. It is also projected that by 2040 it will rise and become the second most frequent cause of cancer-related deaths.

“Specialty health care, in particular skin cancer screening and dermatologic care, remains beyond the reach of large populations of citizens in the state of Georgia, due to the scarcity of specialist practitioners,” says Brenda Santellano, MD.

Work has been done with the Teledermatology in Rural Georgia project, funded by USDA Rural Utilities Services, to combat the lack of screenings. This program involved primary care providers in rural areas using hand-held dermatoscopes to photograph suspicious skin lesions. However, there was limited success with this due to multiple factors. Some providers struggled to adapt, or outright refused to use the new technology while others did not place screen cancer screenings high on their medical priority list compared to other conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The tools and programs used were also costly, draining financial resources.

Santellano, along with Kenza Mamouni, PhD; Loretta Davis, MD; Jorge Cortes, MD; Kendall Buchanan, MD; and Rhea-Beth Markowitz, PhD, created an alternative solution to this problem.

“We want to educate and train the ‘rising workforce instead of attempting to ‘retrain’ the current primary care workforce,” Santellano said.

With their project ‘Expanding Access to Skin Cancer Screening and Dermatologic Care through Teledermatology’ they plan to train medical residents who are in the Phoebe Family Medicine Residency Program at Phoebe Putney Health System in Albany, GA, to use these tools and stress the importance of skin cancer screenings. 70% of graduates practice medicine within a 100-mile radius of Albany, thus remaining in medically underserved communities. In addition to students at Phoebe, they will also be training residents from the Medical College of Georgia. To reduce the strain on their financial resources, they will be utilizing a different set of tools and applications that are more cost effective than the tools used previously.

“This opportunity to expand medical care and educate the next wave of primary care providers was made possible because of Unite in the Fight Against Cancer,” said Cortes, a personal investigator on the project and the director of the Georgia Cancer Center.

Unite in the Fight Against Cancer is a one mile walk that celebrates and honors all who have been affected by this disease, while raising funds for patient centered programs. This program, along with 12 others, was selected to receive funding.

“This project will ultimately benefit patients throughout the state of Georgia and elsewhere by improving access to care by overcoming geographical barriers and reducing travel burdens to obtain dermatological consultations,” said Santellano.

If you would like to learn more about this program, follow us on Facebook to be kept up to date on it and the other programs funded by Unite in the Fight Against Cancer. Unite in the Fight Against Cancer will be held on May 3rd 2025. You can find more information by visiting our website and Facebook event page. We encourage all to join us in the fight against cancer