Caring for Melanoma Survivors with Self-Detected Concerning Moles During COVID-19 Restricted Physician Access: a Cohort Study
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Keywords
Melanoma, COVID-19, self-detected, moles, restricted physician access
Abstract
Background: Physician appointments for non-essential care ceased during COVID-19.
Objective: To pilot test a telehealth solution for patients to rule out melanomas and need for surgical biopsies based on genomic analyses of pigmented lesion samples obtained via adhesive patches.
Methods: Surveys assessed SSE anxiety. Under remote clinician guidance, patients or partners obtained samples using adhesive patches (DermTech, La Jolla, CA).
Results: SSE anxiety increased. Guided self-sampling led to molecular risk factor analyses in 7/7 (100%) of cases compared to 9/10 (90%) randomly selected physician-sampled control cases.
Conclusions: Adhesive patch self-sampling under remote physician guidance is a viable specimen collection option.
References
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