After years of on-the-ground work and collaboration,
#ProjectCheckMate is now published in the Australian Journal of Rural Health:
This isn’t just another paper.
This is real-world validation of a model we’ve been building for over a decade since losing our friend to #skincancer. Bringing world class early detection to regional, rural and remote communities (just like the one he grew up in) – where access has always been an issue.
At its core, the study proves something we’ve long believed:
Highly trained nurses, supported by GPs, technology and community partnerships, can safely, effectively and acceptably deliver skin cancer checks at scale – where they’re needed most.
And the pilot results speak for themselves:
- 509 full-body skin checks delivered
- 40.5% of participants had suspicious lesions identified
- 99% of people said they would use the service again
- 98% said they would return to a nurse-led clinic
This is what accessible, preventative healthcare looks like when done collaboratively, carefully and with community in mind.
Massive credit to:
The Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre for leading the research, evaluation and publication. Skin Smart Australia for superb training and clinical leadership. MetaOptima Technology for allowing us to be the first in the world to utilise your AI-supported dermoscopy in a regional clinical setting. The incredible nurses, GPs, support staff, event teams and communities who brought this to life on the ground. Skintech Medical, Daniel Hamilton, Vineal Prasad, Mariana Vukic, Sarah Hobbs and all the brilliant nurses continuing to check in the communities engaged.
Last but definitely not least we’d like to thank everyone who backed this project – including The Hospital Research Foundation for your IMPACT research grant and ALL of the participants / donors from our #StripOffForSkinCancer campaign with Spencer Tunick, your contributions helped to fund this pilot and it wouldn’t have been possible without you.
Thank you for helping us turn an idea into evidence and proving a model we’ve been developing as a charity since we began in 2010.
What matters now is what comes next. Because while Project Check Mate works…access to quality skin checks in regional Australia is still a deadly issue.
This publication gives us some powerful evidence to scale what we can all do in collaboration and we’re looking forward to working with partners across government, healthcare and industry to take the next step – embedding this model into a targeted national skin check program.
This is a significant milestone.
Let’s build on it.
Together, we are making skin cancer history.
