The Link Between Prolonged Sun Exposure and Skin Cancer: The Need for More Dermatology Specialists

2023-07-09 13:59:07

The incidence of prolonged sun exposure will have a direct effect on future cases of skin cancer, increasing not only the prevalence of the disease, but also its cases. For this reason, and to try to provide the Dermatology specialty with sufficient resources, several of its professionals believe that it would be positive if there were a increase in MIR places of the specialty in the next editions.

“Taking into account how the Health Services are endowed, I understand that a 30-40 percent more specialists they will be needed It would have to be studied, but between the retirements that there will be and the structural deficit that we have, a minimum of 30 or 40 percent increase would be needed ”, he comments to this newspaper Jose Juan Pereyra, Head of the Dermatology Section at the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital (Seville). They share the same opinion Maria del Mar Pestana y Juan Antonio Ratóntutors of Dermatology residents at the University Hospital of the Canary Islands and at the Cruces University Hospital (Bizkaia), respectively.

If there are currently some 80 positions offered in Dermatology, Pestana calculates that reaching 100 would be an adequate number to nurture the specialty with sufficient health professionals. “People are needed, how many exactly I don’t know. But it would be nice if they offered a quarter more than what is offered now”, says the doctor. A distribution that should be “homogeneous” throughout the country, and not depending on the areas where more dermatological diseases are diagnosed.

However, one of the issues raised by the specialty is that expand the offer in the MIR will affect, for good, all dermatological pathology. Furthermore, if the forecasts are confirmed and in the coming years Spain will have more cases of skin cancerthere will be “more reason” to increase the offer MIR in Dermatology. An increase in places that should have an upward trend due to “good dermatological care,” says Ratón.

However, from Castilla y León they do not end up adhering to this line of thought. And it is that, Hector PerandonesMIR tutor of Dermatology at the Hospital Universitario de León, stresses that what must be strengthened are the Specialty Services throughout the health system, not so much the places for residents: “There is a lack of dermatologists in public hospitals. It is necessary to stimulate and create places and services to satisfy this need”. In turn, Perandones emphasizes that skin cancer is “one of the most common” in humans, so its demand is “very large.” Reason why you should strengthen templates of the specialty, he says.

No need to change the training program

Despite the fact that Spanish dermatologists do see it as necessary to increase the number of places in their Services, either through the MIR call or by hiring personnel, they stress that neither the training program nor the period of residence should change to place more emphasis on diseases that originate from the solar exposition extreme. “The training program is already designed so that residents are adequately trained in prevention as well as in the treatment of injuries that uncontrolled sun exposure can cause,” emphasizes Ratón.

The effects that heat waves and their ultraviolet radiation can cause and generate on the skin of citizens is “well collected” in the training program of the specialty, as the doctors say. “We handle it, we study and we dunk well. Residents are quite aware of the damage that sun exposure does to the skin”, adds Pestana. “The training program has a very important part of skin cancer, its prevention and skin precancer, as well as other diseases that have a clear relationship with the sun, such as cutaneous lupus or other photodermatosis. Therefore, the program is fine and should not be changed”, specifies Pereyra.

Perandones, for his part, believes that the Cutaneous oncology and surgery They have “a great weight” during the residency and the entire training period, with a “very important” load in teaching hours and rotation. It indicates that its role will continue to be relevant for the increase in cases of skin cancer there will be in the coming years. On the one hand, Perandones points out that the population aging will affect this increase in cases. And, on the other hand, it indicates that the largest solar radiation that there will be in Spain soon will affect professions that are ‘outdoors’, such as agriculture and tourism, and that this will lead to future tumor cases.

Although it may contain statements, data or notes from health institutions or professionals, the information contained in Redacción Médica is edited and prepared by journalists. We recommend to the reader that any health-related questions be consulted with a health professional.

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