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Get ready for an exciting announcement for the melanoma community

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A bilingual patient education community program for melanoma prevention

Hannah Riva

Mentor Mariela Lane, MD, Craig Maddox, MD, Robert Dellavalle, MD, PhD, MSPH, and Stanislav Tolkachjov, MD
Award Type Medical Student Award
Institution Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso
Despite being the second most common group in the U.S. to be diagnosed with melanoma after non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics have significantly more-advanced-stage diagnoses and significantly higher mortality rates from melanoma than do non-Hispanic whites. The reasons behind this are multifactorial and include the important aspect of decreased melanoma awareness in this population, as well as decreased access to care. Our proposed project will take place at a clinic for the underserved and include a volunteering board-certified dermatologist and patient education about prevention and recognition of melanoma, as well as the ability to schedule an appointment with the volunteering dermatologist, thus uniquely affording participants both self-empowering education and real access to specialist care. This is a practical, boots-on-the-ground project that could serve as an effective example of improving access to care and decreasing disparities in melanoma awareness and prevention. Research is critical to assess efficacy and to appraise systems utilized to draw conclusions and make recommendations for future possible models.