European Prevention Initiative for Dermatological Malignancies (EPIDERM)

The EPIDERM-Team

EPIDERM aims to acquire and disseminate knowledge on skin cancers relating to their occurrence, risk factors, treatments and costs of illness to develop prevention and risk reduction strategies and best practice recommendations. It also aims to assess health literacy on skin cancer and to help promote it by improving knowledge and awareness on three levels:  

• General Population
• Health Practitioners and
• Political Authorities 

Currently we have no accurate data on non-melanoma skin cancers at European level and incidence rates are probably underestimated. In addition the workload generated is also underestimated by health economists and health care managers. With the rise of skin cancer incidence there is a need to develop effective public health strategies to combat the disease at European level, contributing to better prevention as well as to dissemination of best treatment practices through training and exchange of knowledge. 

Synergy between EPIDERM partners with complementary skills will induce a significant multiplier effect, enabling the accumulation, evaluation and dissemination of knowledge. Specifically we will acquire and disseminate knowledge on skin cancer by systematic collection and analysis of comparable data from dermatology clinics and cancer registries and we will incorporate them to databases that will enable us to study the effects of policy interventions to reduce skin cancer occurrence. By building an EPIDERM network infrastructure we will assure dissemination of all the collected info and we will facilitate health literacy and knowledge transfer to all 3 target groups using the appropriate material. 

We expect that by better understanding skin cancer epidemiology in Europe we will improve prevention by adapting it to modern trends of behaviour and making it more effective. Also by promoting the skin examination training for physicians and exchanging best practices on the treatment of skin cancer, a high level of health services could be provided, thus preventing further health impairment.