Course coordinator
Dr Raj Rajalingam
Course overview
- Study period
- Semester 2, 2024 (22/07/2024 - 18/11/2024)
- Study level
- Postgraduate Coursework
- Location
- External
- Attendance mode
- Online
- Units
- 2
- Administrative campus
- Herston
- Coordinating unit
- UQ Medical School
This course addresses clinical recognition and detailed dermatoscopic assessment of skin lesions seen in primary care and dedicated skin cancer practices. This includes a focus on benign, pre-malignant and malignant keratinocytic tumours, naevi and melanoma.
IMED7002 builds on the knowledge from IMED7001, expanding dermatoscopic expertise beyond basic decision-making algorithms. The course delves deeper into "Chaos and Clues" and "Prediction Without Pigment" through an in-depth study of Revised Pattern Analysis, popularized by Harald Kittler. This approach goes beyond deciding whether to excise, observe, or leave a lesion, aiming for a firm differential diagnosis before biopsy.
The course is designed to equip you with:
- Detailed knowledge of the clinical and dermatoscopic features of common benign, pre-malignant, and malignant skin lesions.
- An understanding of the dermatoscopic features of variants, subtypes, and depths of common malignant lesions.
- Knowledge of dermatoscopy for special sites such as mucosal, facial, and acral lesions.
- Detailed knowledge of the clinical and dermatoscopic features of several rare but important malignant skin lesions.
- Basic knowledge of the clinical and dermatoscopic features of several uncommon skin lesions.
- An understanding of the correlation between dermatoscopic features (structures and colors) and their histological counterparts.
- An appreciation of how dermatoscopic features correlate with the histopathology of common skin lesions.
Learning is facilitated via reading material,ﾠweekly one hour zoom tutorials, online clinical cases and weekly quizzes.
Course requirements
Assumed background
All doctors, nurses or clinician-scientists enrolled in the UQ Skin Cancer Program need a sound scientific foundation to their clinical knowledge and skills which should be derived from current evidence based medicine. Candidates with a medical, nursing or science degree and a minimum of 2 years post-graduate clinical work-experience will be eligible to apply to enrol for the IMED7002 course. Ideally applicants should have clinical experience in skin cancer medicine.
It is imperative that candidates have access to a dermatoscope and have the means to take dermoscopic photographs (polarised and non polarised images) of clinical cases. At least this would require mobile phone camera with an attachment to take clear photos through the dermatoscope. It is also assumed that the candidate's clinical workload would include considerable exposure to skin cancer medicine and access to clinical cases.
Restrictions
Restricted to students enrolled in the GCMed (Skin Cancer), MMed (Skin Cancer), or Non-Award applicants who satisfy the admission requirements for the GCMed (Skin Cancer)
Course contact
Course staff
Lecturer
Dr Raj Rajalingam
Guest lecturer
Dr Simon Clark
Dr Angus Collins
Dr Louis Poole
Timetable
Additional timetable information
Each week, specific topics are covered, and you are expected to keep up with the course. Weekly assessments will contribute to your final overall mark. Most Tuesday evenings, there will be an online tutorial via Zoom. Occasionally, a visiting dermatopathologist will join these meetings to discuss the histological features of lesions from the previous week. While attendance at the Zoom meetings is not compulsory, it is strongly encouraged, as histopathological correlation will primarily be covered during these sessions. If work commitments prevent you from attending on Tuesday evenings, efforts will be made to record the meetings for later viewing, although technical issues may sometimes affect the recordings.
Aims and outcomes
To equip you with the skills to confidently make provisional and differential diagnoses of lesions encountered in primary care and skin cancer practice, based on clinical and dermatoscopic examination, and to appreciate the dermatoscopic histopathological correlation of same.
Learning outcomes
After successfully completing this course you should be able to:
LO1.
Demonstrate expertise in clinical and dermatoscopic diagnosis of all commonly encountered benign, pre-malignant and malignant skin lesions.
LO2.
Demonstrate expertise in clinical and dermatoscopic diagnosis of all uncommonly encountered malignant skin lesions
LO3.
Demonstrate competence in clinical and dermatoscopic diagnosis of some rarely encountered malignant skin lesions.
LO4.
Be aware of the limitations of clinical and dermatoscopic examination in the clinical context.
LO5.
Demonstrate knowledge of the histological basis for the dermatoscopic appearance of benign and malignant melanocytic lesions.
LO6.
Demonstrate the ability to differentiate between benign and malignant melanocytic lesions by dermatoscopic assessment.
LO7.
Demonstrate knowledge of relevant ethical and legal requirements and expectations.
LO8.
Demonstrate professionalism as a modern medical practitioner as expected by state medical boards such as working with patients in a therapeutic relationship and working as a member of a health care team.
Assessment
Assessment summary
| Category | Assessment task | Weight | Due date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiz |
Weekly Quiz
|
40% |
29/07/2024 - 21/10/2024 |
| Paper/ Report/ Annotation, Portfolio |
Individual Student Case Assignments
|
20% Pass Mark 70% |
4/10/2024 5:00 pm |
| Examination |
Summative Examination
|
40% Pass mark 70% |
End of Semester Exam Period 2/11/2024 - 16/11/2024 |
A hurdle is an assessment requirement that must be satisfied in order to receive a specific grade for the course. Check the assessment details for more information about hurdle requirements.
Assessment details
Weekly Quiz
- Hurdle
- Online
- Mode
- Activity/ Performance
- Category
- Quiz
- Weight
- 40%
- Due date
29/07/2024 - 21/10/2024
- Learning outcomes
- L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06
Task description
A weekly quiz that may involve multiple choice, true/false or short answer and annotation questions based on images supplied by the course co-ordinator on Learn.UQ. The aggregate mark for these quizzes will make up 40% of the final grade for the semester.
Hurdle requirements
You must achieve an aggregate score of 60% or higher in the weekly quizzes in order to pass the course.Submission guidelines
Submission instructions will be provided via Learn.UQ.
Deferral or extension
You may be able to apply for an extension.
Late submission
Assessments submitted after the due date without an approved extension will receive a late penalty.
Individual Student Case Assignments
- Hurdle
- Online
- Mode
- Product/ Artefact/ Multimedia
- Category
- Paper/ Report/ Annotation, Portfolio
- Weight
- 20% Pass Mark 70%
- Due date
4/10/2024 5:00 pm
- Learning outcomes
- L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L08
Task description
You will produce a portfolio of 5 (five) cases of skin lesions (benign and malignant melanocytic, benign and malignant keratinocytic, inflammatory, adnexal, other malignant, vascular, infiltrates, etc). Each case will require a positional, clinical close-up (macro) and dermatoscopic photo of the lesion, a provisional and differential diagnosis and a copy of the histopathology report (where applicable).Then a short list including incidence, clinical features (typical size and distribution, shape, border, colour, surface features), dermatoscopic features (pattern, colours and clues) and any associations. This information will need to cite references used to compile the information. The portfolio will be due by the end of Week 10.
The overall mark for the portfolio will constitute 20% of the final grade.
Hurdle requirements
The overall mark for the portfolio will constitute 20% of the final grade. In addition, you must score 70% or more in order to pass this section of the course.Submission guidelines
Submission instructions will be provided via Learn.UQ.
Deferral or extension
You may be able to apply for an extension.
Late submission
Assessments submitted after the due date without an approved extension will receive a late penalty.
Summative Examination
- Hurdle
- Online
- Mode
- Written
- Category
- Examination
- Weight
- 40% Pass mark 70%
- Due date
End of Semester Exam Period
2/11/2024 - 16/11/2024
- Learning outcomes
- L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L07, L08
Task description
One Final Examination to be administered online during the examinations period.
The specific date and time of the examination will be notified on Learn.UQ.
The exam will contain:
- Multiple Choice and True/False questions
- Questions designed to test basic knowledge covered in the scope of the course; and
- Questions designed to test your ability to utilise the knowledge that you have learned.
- There will be images of skin lesions, both clinical as well as dermatoscopic that will form the basis of questions.
- There will be histopathology images of skin lesions that will form the basis of questions.
Hurdle requirements
The criteria against which a pass is awarded is simply based on the total number of marks achieved for each question by comparing the answer provided to the model answer. To pass the final examination you must achieve a minimum of 70%.Exam details
| Planning time | no planning time minutes |
|---|---|
| Duration | 120 minutes |
| Calculator options | No calculators permitted |
| Open/closed book | Closed Book examination - no written materials permitted |
| Exam platform | Learn.UQ |
| Invigilation | Not invigilated |
Submission guidelines
Submission instructions will be provided via Learn.UQ.
Deferral or extension
You may be able to defer this exam.
Late submission
Exams submitted after the end of the submission time will incur a late penalty.
Course grading
Full criteria for each grade is available in the Assessment Procedure.
| Grade | Cut off Percent | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (Low Fail) | 0 - 39 |
Absence of evidence of achievement of course learning outcomes. |
| 2 (Fail) | 40 - 59 |
Minimal evidence of achievement of course learning outcomes. |
| 3 (Marginal Fail) | 60 - 69 |
Demonstrated evidence of developing achievement of course learning outcomes Course grade description: You will be unable to achieve a grade higher than 3 if you do not achieve a minimum score of 70% within each of the Portfolio and Final Examination, and 60% within the Weekly Quizzes.ﾠﾠ |
| 4 (Pass) | 70 - 79 |
Demonstrated evidence of functional achievement of course learning outcomes. Course grade description: To achieve a grade of 4 or higher, you must achieve a minimum score of 70% within each of the Portfolio and Final Examination, and 60% within the Weekly Quizzes.ﾠﾠ |
| 5 (Credit) | 80 - 84 |
Demonstrated evidence of proficient achievement of course learning outcomes. |
| 6 (Distinction) | 85 - 89 |
Demonstrated evidence of advanced achievement of course learning outcomes. |
| 7 (High Distinction) | 90 - 100 |
Demonstrated evidence of exceptional achievement of course learning outcomes. |
Additional course grading information
Pass marks are set for assessment items, however on occasion a recognised standard setting methodﾠmay be used to determine the pass mark.ﾠ
Calculation of Final Grade
The percentage mark for this course is reached by calculating the weighted average percentage mark achieved across the marked assessment tasks. The total of the weighted assessment tasks for the course will be rounded to two decimal points if required, with the final mathematical rounding to an integer at the end yielding a percentage mark. A mark of x.5% or greater will be rounded up to (x+1)%. A percentage mark of less than x.5% will be rounded down to x%.
Supplementary assessment
Supplementary assessment is available for this course.
Additional assessment information
Please note that all submission dates for assessments are in Brisbane time - Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST).
Deferred examinations
If you are unable to sit or complete a scheduled final examination you must apply for a deferred examination no later than 5 calendar days after the date the original examination was held. Please see my.UQ for further information on deferred exams. Deferred exams will be held in the deferred and supplementaryﾠexam period.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides emerging tools that may support you in completing some assessments. You may appropriately use AI in completing your assessment tasks for this course unless otherwise indicated by the Course Coordinator. You must clearly reference any use of AI in each instance. A failure to reference AI use may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct. Refer to the following guide regarding referencing ofﾠAI:ﾠOverview - ChatGPT and other generative AI tools - Library Guides at University of Queensland Library (uq.edu.au)ﾠ
Learning resources
You'll need the following resources to successfully complete the course. We've indicated below if you need a personal copy of the reading materials or your own item.
Library resources
Library resources are available on the UQ Library website.
Learning activities
The learning activities for this course are outlined below. Learn more about the learning outcomes that apply to this course.
Filter activity type by
Please select
| Learning period | Activity type | Topic |
|---|---|---|
Multiple weeks From Week 1 To Week 13 |
General contact hours |
Weekly Reading Weekly topics are listed under Learning Resources on Learn.UQ. This will include the relevant sections in the course textbook, as well as links to files for further reading. An assessment item relating to the weekly topic must be completed online each week. Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06 |
Tutorial |
Weekly Zoom Meeting An online tutorial meeting via Zoom will be held to discuss the previous weeks topic and may include a guest lecturer for further input. The meeting will be hosted by the course co-ordinator and lecturers and at times will have a guest lecturer involved. Meeting schedule will be posted on Learn.UQ. This will be a forum for the discussion of the previous week's material and in some weeks further dermatoscopic-histopathological correlation. It is planned that these meetings will be recorded for the benefit of those who may be unable to join the meeting in real time. Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03, L04, L05, L06, L08 |
Policies and procedures
University policies and procedures apply to all aspects of student life. As a UQ student, you must comply with University-wide and program-specific requirements, including the:
- Student Code of Conduct Policy
- Student Integrity and Misconduct Policy and Procedure
- Assessment Procedure
- Examinations Procedure
- Reasonable Adjustments - Students Policy and Procedure
Learn more about UQ policies on my.UQ and the Policy and Procedure Library.