Basic Skin Lesion Recognition with a Dermoscope – For GPs & AHPs

About this video

Duration: 1h 30m (Recorded March 2026)

Designed for GPs and Allied Health Professionals, this session is delivered by Associate specialist in Dermatology, Dr Stephen Hayes, who brings over two decades of hands-on dermatology expertise to his teaching.

The aim of this recorded session is to guide delegates on the use of dermoscopy as a practical tool for improving skin lesion diagnosis. The dermoscope (some users prefer the term dermatoscope) is a portable, hand-held skin microscope which is now well proven as an invaluable tool in skin lesion recognition. It is often called ‘The dermatologist’s stethoscope’ and this is a fitting analogy because it is a simple piece of kit, deployed after history taking, inspection and palpation have been done, which gathers additional clinical data leading to better diagnostic decisions. Some training is required.

To become a real expert with the dermoscope takes time and mentoring, but clinical trials have shown that GPs can significantly improve their ability to recognise skin cancers after just one day of training. The Primary Care Dermatology Society has long advocated that GPs and practice nurses should use dermoscopy primarily to support the diagnosis of everyday benign lesions (warts, banal naevi, haemangiomas etc) to avoid patients with such lesions being sent needlessly on cancer pathways.

Dr Hayes teaches the ‘Chaos and Clues’ method for interpreting dermoscopic images, which is well validated and the easiest method to teach and learn.

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