New app and lens trial 'cuts skin cancer referrals by 50%'

BBC News

27-03-2025

A small lens which can be used by patients to help detect skin cancer has cut hospital referrals by 50% in a trial being run by a number of GPs, according to a dermatologist consultant. Map My Mole is being piloted in three NHS surgeries in Devon and Cornwall and has been used to review more than 1,500 moles and lesions since March 2024. Patients can be sent a lens which they use on their mobile phone to photograph a mole or lesion. Photos are then uploaded on to an app to allow consultants to quickly review cases any GP is unsure about, with patients getting results in a matter of days.Dr Toby Nelson said the project had also freed up time for consultants to see other patients.
In the app, patients are asked a number of questions about their skin health and any mole or lesion of concern. This information, along with the photos, are then uploaded to the app allowing for a swift review by their GP. Dr Nelson said: "We have reduced the onward referral from a GP to a hospital by over 50% across those three sites. "Prior to this, the GP would spend around 15 minutes of their time with a patient. Now it takes two or four minutes to review the mole online."
The three GP practices involved in the trial are:Friary House, PlymouthRuby Country Medical Group - Stratton surgeryRuby Country Medical Group - Holsworthy surgery
Patients who contact a participating surgery about a mole or lesion are given the choice of receiving a lens by post and uploading the photographs themselves, or they can come into the GP practice where an assistant will do it for them.Dr Victor D'Ambrogio, a GP at Stratton Surgery near Bude said: "We don't need to be offering 15 minute appointments, and it's reduced the referral rate. "In the 10 months we have been running it, we've seen approximately 400 patients."Out of those, around 10% have been referred on... previously [it] would have been a lot more."
Dee Noakes, 84 of Stratton, Bude, contacted her surgery about a facial growth.She said: "I had this crusty mole on the side of my nose. "I came into the surgery and saw a GP assistant who took photos of it. "My doctor called me the next day to say he was concerned and, within a week, I was at the dermatology department at North Devon District Hospital."
Since the development of the Map My Mole app in September 2023, it has been adopted by 915 private clinics around the UK.A team of five consultants has since reviewed more than 5,000 lesions on the app.A lot of dermatology centres around the UK, especially in the south-west of England, were becoming skin lesion services where a lot of their time was spent reviewing patients who had been referred on the skin cancer pathway, according to Dr Nelson.
He said the vast majority of these patients did not have skin cancer and, if they were able to reduce demand on those services, it would free up time for consultants to see other patients with conditions such as eczema, acne and psoriasis.He said: "Patients with other skin conditions may find themselves waiting between six to 18 months, depending on where they are in the UK, before they get that initial dermatology appointment."Dr Nelson said the app projected the expertise of consultants upstream into primary care to support GPs all within one platform.It aligns with the NHS plan to keep care closer to home, reduce hospital attendances and has the potential to free up tens of thousands of GP and hospital appointments.Dr Nelson said he hoped the trial would encourage the NHS to commission the use of the app on a wider basis.