Why should a dermatologist start doing dermoscopy?
Dermoscopy is a fusion of the two major principles that facilitate good skin examination, namely magnification and illumination. By using dermoscopy dermatologists will be forced to examine individual lesions more closely. Their diagnostic accuracy for diagnosing not only pigmented skin lesions and melanoma, but also a whole variety of dermatoses, including infections and inflammatory conditions will increase, with time and training. As with all aspects of medicine, diagnostic accuracy increases with experience, takes time and perseverence. We suggest that doctors beginning with dermoscopy should initially rely on as usual their clinical judgement and should start to use dermoscopy for unequivocal lesions only. In this way their familiarity with dermoscopic features will gradually increase. Attending a course or meeting in dermoscopy will increase your confidence in dermoscopy and will increase your diagnostic accuracy particularly for pigmented skin lesions in general and early invasi
