Efficacy, cost-minimization, and budget impact of a personalized discharge letter for basal cell carcinoma patients to reduce low-value follow-up care.

Background: The incidence of keratinocyte carcinomas is high and rapidly growing. Approximately 80% of keratinocyte carcinomas consist of basal cell carcinomas (BCC) with 50% of these being considered as low-risk tumors. Nevertheless, 83% of the low-risk BCC patients were found to receive more follow-up care than recommended according to the Dutch BCC guideline, which is one visit post-treatment for this group.

Cancer survivors' preference for follow-up care providers: a cross-sectional study from the population-based PROFILES-registry.

Background: The best practice for the organization of follow-up care in oncology is under debate, due to growing numbers of cancer survivors. Understanding survivors' preferences for follow-up care is elementary for designing patient-centred care. Based on data from prostate cancer and melanoma survivors, this study aims to identify: 1) preferences for follow-up care providers, for instance the medical specialist, the oncology nurse or the general practitioner; 2) characteristics associated with these preferences and 3) the preferred care provider to discuss cancer-related problems.

Scoring nail psoriasis.

Background: Scoring systems are indispensable in evaluating the severity of disease and monitoring treatment response.

Objective: We sought to evaluate the competence of various nail psoriasis severity scoring systems and to develop a new scoring system.

Methods: The authors conducted a prospective, observational, single-point study of 36 patients given the diagnosis of fingernail psoriasis.

[Dermatitis or arthritis as a sign of gonorrhoea].

Disseminated gonococcal infection occurs in less than 5% of patients infected with Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The majority of these patients present with arthritis, tenosynovitis, polyarthralgia or dermatitis. In this article we present two patients with disseminated gonococcal infection, each with different symptoms.

Effect of smoking and sun on the aging skin.

Smoking and ultraviolet radiation are known to have a detrimental effect on human skin. Important characteristics of the aging skin are elastosis and telangiectasia. The purpose of the study was to assess the relative importance of age per se, and the detrimental effects caused by sun exposure and smoking on the development of cutaneous elastosis and telangiectasia in a well-defined group of individuals.