MelaTools-eCDS Study (quantitative analysis)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Improving GP assessment of pigmented skin lesions: national evaluation of an electronic clinical decision support (eCDS) tool for melanoma.
IRAS ID
227649
Contact name
Fiona Walter
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Cambridge
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
In 2014 there were 15,419 new cases of malignant melanoma in the UK. Melanoma survival is determined by the thickness of the lesion at diagnosis: while thin melanomas have excellent survival rates (>95%), Only 8-25% of people diagnosed with a thick melanoma (stage 4) are alive five years later. To improve survival it is therefore critical to detect melanoma early. It is challenging for both patients and GPs to recognise changes in a mole which may be clinically suspicious, from the vast majority of normal moles. Recent studies have shown that GPs can make accurate assessments of moles when they routinely use guidelines such as the seven-point checklist. The overall aim of the proposed research is to help patients and GPs assess moles better to improve the timely diagnosis of melanoma.
This study aims to compare the effect of the 7-PCL used as electronic clinical decision support (‘melanoma-eCDS’) against usual GP management, on melanoma thickness at diagnosis. We hypothesise that use of the melanoma-eCDS will lead to earlier diagnosis of melanoma, as measured by Breslow thickness, compared with current normal practice. This will be the first UK study of a GP intervention powered to detect differences in melanoma thickness using routinely collected data from cancer registries.REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EM/0298
Date of REC Opinion
3 Aug 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion