HESRM’s Vinayak Nahar, MD and associates published in JAMA Oncology

The Case for Skin Cancer Screening With Total-Body Skin Examinations  

JAMA Oncology- JAMA Network

Editorial- July 26, 2016

Published online July 26, 2016

Vinayak K. Nahar, MD, MS, Jonathan E. Mayer, MD, MPH, Jane M. Grant-Kels, MD

Recently, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent volunteer panel of experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine, updated its 2009 recommendation guidelines for skin cancer screening. The new guidelines are essentially identical to those released in 2009. The USPSTF continues to assert that “the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of visual skin examination by a clinician to screen for skin cancer in adults.”¹ Although this updated recommendation statement seems neither for nor against screening, it largely downplays the importance of skin cancer screening and may lead physicians and patients to avoid…