What is SCARD?
The Skin Cancer Audit & Research Database (SCARD) Surgical Audit Project was conceived in 2006 by Cliff Rosendahl as a surgical log designed for doctors who treat skin malignancies. It was created to facilitate the easy recording of useful data at the time of treatment, allowing the treatment of skin cancers to be tracked more effectively.
By collecting data on the diagnostic and therapeutic process, SCARD helps practitioners to optimize patient safety and provide feedback on their own performance. The SCARD platform is designed specifically for skin cancer practitioners working in primary care, and several medical colleges have recognized it as a self-auditing and quality improvement program for Continuing Professional Development. With the continued use of SCARD as a self-auditing tool, practitioners can track their performance and improvement over time.
The SCARD system is typically used by those in primary care roles who work with skin cancer, such as doctors, nurses, pathologists, dermatologists, and plastic surgeons.
In addition to tracking specimens, this project also generates a confidential report on the user’s computer. The report provides a breakdown of specimen management details, including a breakdown by diagnosis, the number of new lesions sampled to exclude melanoma to find one melanoma, the percentage of new lesions treated to exclude non-melanoma skin cancer that is malignant, the user’s diagnostic accuracy, the percentage of definitive managements that achieve adequate margins, and other relevant details.
The project also allows users to upload deidentified data to the SCARD website to produce a report using pooled results. The report is then made available on the website for the purpose of comparison with the user’s own confidential report generated on their own computer. Participation in the pooled results is optional for all users.
The Skin Cancer Audit and Research Database (SCARD) is managed by SCARD Systems Pty Ltd and is provided free-of-charge for all users.
SCARD Systems Pty Ltd is the legal entity that owns and operates the SCARD platform & acts as custodians for the pooled data.
SCARD was originally written as a downloadable program for Windows PCs. With approval from the RACGP in 2008, SCARD platform published a cloud-based version, becoming one of the first medical system in Australia approved for online record storage.
The downloadable version is no longer under development.
The SCARD program is an approved clinical auditing platform for the RACGP & ACRRM over the 3-year assesment period.
Please see our Programs page for more information on the auditing requirements for audit point programs.