Skin advisory group- inaugural meeting

21st January 2015

 

January saw the first meeting of the advisory group for a UK programme of systematic reviews on the diagnosis and staging of skin cancer funded by the NIHR. The suite of over 20 diagnostic test accuracy reviews is a collaboration between the content expertise of the Cochrane Skin Group based at Nottingham and the methodological expertise of the Test Evaluation Research Group in Birmingham. The aim of the programme is to extensively investigate available resources and literature in order to produce definitive reviews on both the diagnosis and staging of melanoma and keratinocyte skin cancers (basal cell and cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas, also termed 'non-melanoma' skin cancers).

The assembled advisory group, chaired by Professor Hywel Williams from Nottingham, is a collaboration of members from a number of disciplines, including the Cochrane Skin Group, British Association of Dermatologists, general practitioners, NICE, the Birmingham School of Health and Population Sciences, patient and public representatives and BAPRAS (Mr Hamid Tehrani). The meeting was an excellent example of the progress that is possible with such collaboration towards the unified goal of improving skin cancer diagnosis and management. The project is being led by Dr Jac Dinnes from the Birmingham team.

Authorship of the reviews is through volunteers, and it was proudly noted that 6 trainees from plastic and reconstructive surgery have been fortunate to be included as authors on this important project.

The project is scheduled to run for the next two years, and the results of the reviews are eagerly anticipated. 

 

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