The role of photography

How digital photography can help

With the advent of smartphones, digital photography is now on everyone’s fingertips. Having a record of change through photographs may help a doctor to understand if a mole is new or changing, which are all potential signs of melanoma.

Change tends to occur month by month. However, the raised, lump-like melanoma (nodular melanoma) can evolve over a period of weeks. Generally speaking, it is possible for most people to examine and keep an eye on most of their skin and take photographs of the front of your body yourself. However, the back, the backs of your thighs and your scalp are much harder for you to see clearly.

Many members of the public, including local doctors and dermatologists, find that having good quality, well-lit and well-focused photographs of these areas may help in monitoring your skin for changing spots or new spots.

One way of doing this is to have a friend or partner photograph the backs of your thighs, your lower back, your upper back, soles of your feet and your scalp, on your smart phone (4 photos in total, one of each body area). These photos can then be used to monitor for change.

You may then take these photographs to a GP or dermatologist when you have concerns about a particular spot or when it is time for you to have a skin check.

Even your partner and friends can use the photographs to check for change. They do not need, of course, to make a diagnosis – they simply need to be observant enough to notice changes and identify anything new.  This type of photographic record is particularly helpful if you have a lot of moles on your skin and if there is a family history of melanoma. Having such photographs can also assist in reducing the number of unnecessary mole removals because, if the mole or spot in question has not changed over several years, it is unlikely to be a skin cancer at the time it is being checked against the photograph.