App Teaches Doctors to Diagnose Skin Cancer

Improving Diagnostic Accuracy in Skin Cancer Diagnostics Using Educational Mobile App: a Randomized Controlled Study

This study aimed to examine if self-paced learning with a novel digital patient-case-based educational platform can increase primary care physicians' diagnostic accuracy of malignant and benign skin lesions on both the level of benign/malignant and the diagnosis level. Secondarily the study aimed to investigate the time spent in reaching this change in proficiency.

Participants were given a questionnaire and an initial Skin Cancer Multiple Choice-Questionnaire (MCQ) to test their diagnostic skills regardining skin and mole cancer and the most common differential diagnoses. Participants in the Intervention group was then given access to an educational mobile application (App) for 8 days and asked to diagnose 500 patient cases. The participants did so at their own leisure and time. After 8 days they were asked to abstain from using the App for another 8 days (wash out period) and were then given a Final Skin Cancer Multiple Choice-Questionnaire (MCQ). Participants of the control group received no intervention nor education during the 16 days of waiting before they took the final Skin Cancer Multiple Choice-Questionnaire.

Educational Mobile Application with a library of digital patient-cases and written learning modules the user can access on 36 common skin lesions, both benign and malignant.

Participants are given a test before and after the intervention using a skin cancer MCQ test with 12 digital-patient cases. A higher score means better diagnostic proficiency. The primary outcome is the change of this score.

Sensitivity, Specificity and Positive Predictive Value of the participants in the intervention group, calculated on their cases seen in the educational mobile application.