To Excise or Not?: Comparing Clinical Management Decisions for Melanoma Between Dermatologists With and Without the Aid of MelaFind

Trial Information

To Excise or Not?: Comparing Clinical Management Decisions for Melanoma Between Dermatologists With and Without the Aid of MelaFind

Early detection of melanoma is critical for favorable prognosis, since patients with earlier
stage melanomas have a much higher probability of survival than with later stages. The
traditional method of early detection has been with serial total body skin exams where the
health care provider examines all skin surfaces, including mucosa, for suspicious pigmented
lesions. The diagnostic performance of dermatologists for melanoma depends on the level of
dermatological training. More important than being able to make a diagnosis of melanoma on
clinical impression is the ability to make an appropriate decision to excise the lesion. To
aid dermatologists in the detection of early melanoma, MelaFind was developed, a
non-invasive and objective multi-spectral computer vision system technology. It was
designed to generate output - MelaFind Positive or MelaFind Negative- for consideration in
the lesion management decisions.

This survey study will determine and compare the average excision sensitivity to melanoma
and specificity of dermatologists without MelaFind output to the average excision
sensitivity to melanoma and specificity of dermatologists with MelaFind output. Another
purpose is to determine and compare the sensitivity to melanoma and specificity of MelaFind
to the average excision sensitivity to melanoma and specificity of dermatologists without
MelaFind output.