Australia is facing a looming skills shortage to deal with a predicted 50 per cent increase in cases and 68 per cent increase in deaths from melanoma in the next two decades, a national medical Congress said on Friday.
The annual Australasian Skin Cancer Congress on the Gold Coast held on Friday, May 20, opened with a panel discussion on the role of primary health to manage the future skin cancer disease burden in light of recent research published in JAMA Dermatology showing global rates of melanoma skyrocketing in coming years.
Panel moderator and Queensland radiation epidemiologist Professor Michael Kimlin said that with costs rising for individuals with more than one skin cancer or melanoma, associated health care and economic and social costs would rise exponentially in coming decades.
“Skin cancers impose the highest costs of any cancer on the Australian health system and prevention and early detection remain the most cost-effective ways to reduce those escalating costs,’’ Professor Kimlin said.
A recent study by Congress presenter Associate Professor Louisa Gordon and colleagues estimates the cost of treating a patient in Australia with stage III/IV melanoma to be more than $100,000 per annum.
“With our ageing population, more and more Australians are going to be presenting with more and more skin cancers and early detection and treatment remains the most effective way to prevent unnecessary death from skin cancer as well as ballooning costs to the health care system,’’ Professor Kimlin said.
Professor Kimlin said it was critical that more GPs were trained in contemporary detection and treatment techniques to manage the growing skin cancer burden in the Australian population. But at the same time consumers needed to be confident in the qualifications of their practitioner to diagnose and manage the disease.
“As a health industry we really need to work together on this, given the serious disease burden we are facing as a nation, ‘’ Professor Kimlin said. “It is critical that we work with the new Federal Health Minister to create an accreditation and standards system so that consumers can easily identify the qualifications of their practitioner and be confident that the practice those doctors work within adheres to robust national standards.
“Skilling up a workforce of general practitioners remains the most cost-effective way of addressing rising rates of skin cancers in the Australian population.’’
New research from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute shows that more than two-thirds of Australians will be treated for skin cancers in their lifetime, with rates increasing by up to 6 per cent a year over the past three decades.
The research found that 69 per cent of Australians (73 per cent of men and 65 per cent of women) will have at least one excision for a skin cancer in their lifetime.
Source: Australasian Skin Cancer Congress
