Unite in the Fight Funds Expanding Access to Skin Cancer Screening through Teledermatology

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 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, project manager and member of the Teledermatology team. One approach to solve this health disparity is with the use of telemedicine, or in this case, teledermatology.

A collaboration between the Georgia Cancer Center and the AU Department of Dermatology initially used this approach with Teledermatology in Rural Georgia, a project funded by the USDA Rural Utilities Services. This program trained primary care providers in rural clinics in Georgia to use a hand-held dermatoscope attached to a smartphone to photograph suspicious skin lesions. The technology allows the clinician to send the images to the AU dermatologists for diagnosis and treatment plan. However, there was limited success with this approach due to several key factors. Teledermatology investigators, including Santellano, Kenza Mamouni, PhD; Rhea-Beth Markowitz, PhD; and Jorge Cortes, MD, of the GCC along with Kendall Buchanan, MD; and Loretta Davis, MD, of the Department of Dermatology, applied for funding from Unite in the Fight to explore 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 will train family medicine residents in the MCG Family Medicine Residency Program and MCG medical students to use these tools and to stress the importance of skin cancer screening to their patients. The team hopes to expand the program (now rebranded as Teledermatology Serving Georgia) to participants in the Phoebe Family Medicine Residency Program in Albany, GA, many of whom eventually practice medicine within the nearby medically underserved communities. Another feature of this project is testing a different type of hand-held dermatoscope and software platform that are more cost effective than the system used previously. Selected primary care providers from several of the rural clinics in the original program will also be included.

“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, the director of the Georgia Cancer Center and a principal investigator on the project along with Buchanan of the Dermatology department. 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.

“We hope that equipping the next generation of primary care physicians with this new arsenal of state-of-the-art diagnostic tools will result in expanded access to skin cancer screening and dermatological care for generations to come,” added Markowitz.

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.