About SCARD

10 Years Caring About You

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.

[icon_timeline][icon_timeline_item time_title=”December 2006″ icon_type=”selector” icon=”Defaults-play-circle” icon_size=”32″ icon_color=”#de5034″ icon_color_bg=”#ffffff”]Concept of a skin cancer audit discussed with the Skin Cancer Society of Australia[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”March 2007″]Public demonstration at the Skin Cancer Society of Australia Conference[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_feat time_title=”June 2007″ icon_type=”selector” icon=”Defaults-user-md” icon_size=”32″ icon_color=”#de5034″ icon_color_bg=”#ffffff”]Registration for “The Audit” opened to Australian Doctors[/icon_timeline_feat][icon_timeline_item time_title=”December 2007″]Use of the SCARD spreads to New Zealand, Austria, Cypress, the USA & UK.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”July 2008″]140 doctors & over 35,000 cases to the pool as of July 1st;  development of an online version commences[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_feat time_title=”December 2008″]RACGP Ethics approve online version for public use.[/icon_timeline_feat][icon_timeline_item time_title=”July 2009″]Online version is fully operational with 285 doctors and 92,000 pooled specimens[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”July 2011″]457 doctors & over 220,000 cases across 89,000 patients[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”July 2021″]1465 doctors & over 1,350,000 cases across 456,000 patients[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”December 2023″]1,792 doctors & over 1,760,975 cases across 584,841 patients[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_feat time_title=”Now” icon_type=”selector” icon=”Defaults-bar-chart bar-chart-o” icon_size=”32″ icon_color=”#de5034″ icon_color_bg=”#ffffff”]1,917 doctors & over 2,020,004 cases across 664,069 patients[/icon_timeline_feat][/icon_timeline]
Surgical Auditing
SCARD Surgical Audit
Primary Care
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The Skin Cancer Audit and Research Database (SCARD) is managed by SCARD Systems Pty Ltd.

SCARD Systems Pty Ltd is the legal entity that owns and operates the SCARD platform & acts as custodians for the pooled data in conjunction with SCARD Inc.

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 Surgical Audit is an approved clinical auditing platform for various colleges and educational bodies. CPD periods typically run over a 1-year or 3-year assessment period.

Please see our Programs page for more information on the auditing requirements for audit point programs.

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