Australia has the highest melanoma rate in the world. Most GPs don't have a routine skin-check workflow.

Australia has the highest age-standardised incidence of melanoma of any country on Earth. Around 1 in 13 Australians will develop melanoma in their lifetime. Roughly 1,300 die of it each year. Most of those deaths are preventable through early detection.

What 'early detection' actually means

A melanoma diagnosed at less than 1mm depth has a 5-year survival of 99%. The same melanoma, allowed to grow for 18-24 months without detection, often hits 4mm+ depth where 5-year survival drops to around 50%. The difference is one annual skin check. That's the entire system.

Why most practices don't have a routine workflow

A proper skin check takes 12-15 minutes plus dermoscopy. It doesn't fit a normal consult slot. It requires the patient to undress. Most patients don't think to ask. Most GPs don't think to schedule it.

The result: skin checks happen when a patient notices a lesion. By that point, the easy cancers have been missed.

The structured-recall workflow

Identify high-risk patients in your practice — fair skin, blue eyes, history of >50 sunburns by age 20, family history, immunosuppression, prior NMSC. Set an annual recall. Pre-book a dedicated 20-minute appointment slot for the check. Use the recall pre-consult to give the patient a self-skin-check guide via app so they can flag anything they want examined.

Done properly, the skin-check appointment becomes the most clinically high-value 20 minutes in the practice's week.