In November 2022 at our second ACEMID community forum we held an in-person and online discussion with almost 100 consumers and the community about our vision for a targeted melanoma screening program and what new technologies we could incorporate in the future.
The discussion was led by Professor Monika Janda, Professor H. Peter Soyer, Associate Professor Liam Caffery and Ms Montana O’Hara at The University of Queensland. They were also joined by a consumer representative to facilitate the discussions.
The team also shared a progress update on the ACEMID cohort study including recruitment numbers and active sites. The ACEMID study has received over 12,000 expressions of interest to participate across QLD, NSW and VIC. To date, over 2,000 participants had been recruited into the study.
Benefits and harms of screening were discussed. Benefits include reduced severity and morbidity, less invasive treatment, reduced incidence and deaths. Potential barriers include overdiagnosis, overtreatment, false positives, false negatives, the harmful physical and psychological effect of screening tests, and the costs of implementing a nationwide screening program.
The team shared the exciting new technologies they are working on including:
- 3D total-body imaging
- Artificial intelligence
- Diagnostic and remote monitoring apps
- Less invasive diagnostic techniques such as scarless biopsies (tape stripping) and microbiopsy devices. Microbiopsy devices take only a very small amount of skin tissue (leaving a small puncture site) in the skin that heals in days.
- Risk assessment tools (helping us to determine who should be screened and how often).
The forum included an interactive polling session where both online and in-person attendees could respond to the researchers’ questions. Overall, 96% of attendees reported they would participate in a melanoma screening program.
The researchers also asked the attendees hypothetically what would be the main barrier to participating in a melanoma screening program? Some of the top concerns included time off work, costs for treatment and travel costs.