On April 30, 2009, I had the pleasure of visiting Albuquerque, New Mexico for the first time. I was there speaking to a group of physicians about MoleSafe and our new location in New Mexico. While there, I filmed a piece about MoleSafe for the region’s morning show Good Day New Mexico and I was introduced to a gentleman who was a melanoma survivor, Bill McCulloch (click on the picture below to watch the clip and meet Bill).
Bill is in his 60′s and had previously developed a melanoma on the back of his neck. Like most of us, he had spent his summers in New Mexico in the sun. What made his story compelling was that his melanoma was not detected by him, his spouse or his doctor. Rather, one evening, while attending a show, a physician happened to be seated behind him. Physicians never take off their stethoscopes and as the show went on, I can only imagine this doctor trying to get a close up look at the mole. At the end of the performance, the doctor leaned over, touched his shoulder and suggested that he see his doctor regarding the lesion on his neck. The biopsy confirmed it was a melanoma.
It was luckily non-invasive and he has done fine. Still we must ask ourselves, why leave a melanoma to be discovered by a chance encounter with a doctor or anyone else? Why has the healthcare community lagged behind the technology in developing standards of surveillance for the evaluation of the at-risk melanoma population? I look forward to your insights.
