From December 4-6, 2009, at the 4th Annual Practical Course in Dermoscopy, I walked in the shadow of a giant whose presence will be missed in the teaching process.
This past week Alfred W. Kopf, MD, conducted was what possibly the last lecture from one of the most incredible careers in the specialty of dermatology. And during this conference, which included the latest updates on malignant melanoma, Dr. Kopf’s topic was teaching physicians.
Much as changed since 1985 when Dr. Kopf and his colleagues wrote an article that helped to teach physicians and thus the public the value of skin self-examinations, promoting at that time, the ABCD concept I’ve posted about before. Yet, per my other recent posts, still not enough has changed in getting more physicians trained and on board to be aware and scrutinizing the skin even during other exams.
But Dr. Kopf also spent the next portion of his career promoting the use of total body photography for the early detection of melanoma, and the advocacy of Dermoscopy as an essential tool. He worked diligently to help prove its effectiveness, even helping to identify important mole patterns necessary to make it most effective.
He battled the slow to change tide of US dermatologists, of whom only 23% practice Dermoscopy, vs. its use by virtually 100% of dermatologists outside our country.
To them it’s perceived as essential to their expertise as a stethoscope is to a cardiologist. In the face of the unacceptably low adoption rate in the U.S., Dr Kopf has truly made it his life work to promote the use of Dermoscopy and the training of physicians in that use. I have no doubt his effort has saved thousands of lives.
Dr. Kopf recently retired from NYU Medical School as Professor Emeritus of Dermatology / Clinical Professor, after one of the most notable careers in our field, spanning more than five decades. He also one of the founders of the Skin Cancer Foundation, the Melanoma Newsletter, and has remained an active participant in the melanoma lecture circuit, continuing to provide excellent training to physicians all around the world. I have consulted with and spoken to him on many occasions over the past several years as I have become more involved in the community of physicians working towards effective early diagnosis of melanoma, and he has always been a gentleman, eager to teach, and eager to promote those tools necessary to promote early detection to help save lives.
What make me particularly happy is the knowledge that MoleSafe incorporates almost all of Dr. Kopf’s lifelong passions and topics he’s worked to promote. Now we have to pick up that gauntlet and continue on his path to grow use of Dermoscopy and help improve survival rates exponentially.
