SCARD is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Vin Rajeswaran as Chief Medical Officer. Dr Rajeswaran joins the platform with extensive experience in clinical governance, medical education, and digital health innovation. His leadership will support SCARD’s continued growth and ensure the platform remains at the forefront of structured skin cancer audit and data reporting. (more…) Read More
Dear SCARD Users, Following our November communication and the valuable feedback we received from the SCARD community, we are writing to confirm the fee structure and access arrangements for the SCARD Audit. Your support reinforced the importance of SCARD as a clinical audit tool, and this next step ensures the platform remains secure, sustainable, and able to continue supporting best practice in skin cancer care. (more…) Read More
The SCARD Surgical Audit CPD Program: 2026 – 2028 Triennium The commencement of the 2026–2028 CPD triennium marks an important milestone for practitioners participating in the SCARD Surgical Audit CPD Program. As professional development requirements continue to evolve, SCARD remains committed to providing a structured, evidence-based audit framework that supports high-quality clinical practice, reflective learning, and measurable improvement in skin cancer management within primary care. (more…) Read More
In primary care skin cancer practice, meaningful improvement is driven by understanding patterns in everyday clinical work. Real-world audit allows practitioners to move beyond individual cases and identify trends across their own practice over time. By collecting structured clinical data at the point of care, audit transforms routine activity into insight that can inform decision-making, reflection, and ongoing learning. (more…) Read More
Delivering high-quality skin cancer care in rural and remote settings comes with unique challenges. Lower patient volumes, broader scopes of practice, workforce limitations, and geographic isolation can make participation in structured quality improvement activities more difficult than in metropolitan environments. Despite these challenges, ongoing audit, reflection, and continuous improvement remain essential to safe and effective patient care. (more…) Read More
As we reflect on the year 2023 at SCARD, we are thrilled to share with our community the comprehensive review of our journey and milestones achieved. Our sister site, skin.org.au, has just published an insightful article, “2023: A Year in Review for SCARD,” capturing the essence of our progress and the significant advancements made in skin cancer research and practice. (more…) Read More
In the realm of medical practice and research, the significance of data analysis cannot be overstated. Medical professionals constantly grapple with a wealth of patient information, but the manner in which they digest and utilize this data can have a profound impact on decision-making and patient outcomes. One critical consideration in this process is the choice between raw statistics and visual data representation, such as graphs and charts. To assist all health care professionals, SCARD have just released our updated report platform for public data, including heat maps and reports from the SCARD Research Pool. (more…) Read More
As you would no doubt expect, medical research requires significant compute power to process and analyse vast amounts of complex data. With the increasing prevalence of skin cancer cases and the need to improve diagnostic accuracy and treatment options, researchers heavily rely on advanced computational resources to make meaningful advancements in this field. The compute power required for skin cancer research plays a crucial role in handling high-resolution images, genetic sequencing data, and other large datasets obtained from patient samples and clinical studies. (more…) Read More
Is it secure? With the regular reports of data breaches worldwide, security and compliance for SCARD is a daily focus for us. This post aims to provide you with some information on the technologies used by SCARD and how each component is independently secure and contributes to the overall compliance of SCARD. Since SCARD is also between versions (Version 4 > Version 5), we’re including details about both the legacy platform as well as the new system that is undergoing trials with users. (more…) Read More
The recent publication “Practitioner characteristics, diagnostic accuracy metrics and discovering-individual with respect to 637 melanomas documented by 27 general practitioners on the Skin Cancer Audit Research Database” was featured in the University of Queensland’s GP newsletter for May 2023 as the “Research article focus”. (more…) Read More
Knowledge of accuracy for melanoma diagnosis and melanoma discovering-individual in primary care is limited. We describe general practitioner (GP) characteristics and analyse defined diagnostic accuracy metrics for GPs in the current study comparing this with a previous study for GPs common to both, and we analyse the individual first discovering each melanoma as a lesion of concern. (more…) Read More
It was Easter in 2007 when SCARD started seeing significant use, and with the impending arrival of a particular bunny, the primary email chain had a subject line of “Rabbit Stew.” Since its introduction in 2007, SCARD has become one of the largest databases for skin cancer treatment and research in Australia & New Zealand. (more…) Read More
In the world of databases, dates are crucial pieces of information that are used for a variety of purposes. They are used to record events, track time-sensitive data, and organise information in chronological order. However, using different date formats and standards can lead to inconsistencies, confusion, and errors. That’s why it’s important to use standardized dates for databases, such as ISO 8601. (more…) Read More
SCARD Systems has removed Google Analytics from this website and the SCARD Surgical Audit. Google Analytics collects website traffic and user behavior data, including their location, interests, and browsing history. While this data can be useful for developers to improve their content and user experience, it can also widen the digital footprint for visitors and increase the information that can be tracked and shared across multiple websites. (more…) Read More
General practitioners manage more melanomas than dermatologists or surgeons in Australia. Previously undescribed, the management and outcomes of melanoma patients treated by multiple Australasian general practitioners are examined. (more…) Read More
Most melanomas (including melanomas in situ), in Australasia, are treated by general practitioners (GPs). Previously undescribed, the characteristics of a series of melanomas treated by multiple GPs are examined. (more…) Read More
Dear Health Professional, The link provided below is for health professionals who manage skin cancer, including melanoma, and it provides access to a new free resource from the UQ Skin Cancer Program. If you wish to access it please provide your contact details where prompted and you will receive an email with a link to the “Skin Cancer Education Hub”. Resources include a new 10-minute Case-Based Learning video featuring a flat pigmented facial lesion recurring twice after misdiagnosis as a naevus. New cases will be added regularly. I invite you to access this resource and to share this link with your colleagues. https://medicine.uq.edu.au/skin-cancer-program?utm_source=cliff-rosendahl Best wishes, Professor Cliff Rosendahl Read More
Don’t miss out on your CPD Points earned via SCARD Did you know that by using SCARD, you may be eligible for CPD Recognition? (more…) Read More
Dermatoscopy and Skin Cancer: A handbook for hunters of skin cancer and melanoma This new textbook provides an invaluable resource for new and improving students of dermoscopy both to read and reference. It offers a methodical and comprehensive guide to understanding dermoscopy and using it to assess skin lesions. (more…) Read More
Dermatoscopy: Pattern analysis of pigmented and non-pigmented lesions Dermatoscopy has undoubtedly advanced diagnostic accuracy of pigmented and non-pigmented skin lesions. Pattern analysis is the most powerful of current methods for dermatoscopic diagnosis, but it does present significant challenges to the learning dermatoscopist. (more…) Read More
