Early education key to preventing melanoma

Melanoma is killing young people as never before, and a new educational program created in part by a group of medical students and dermatology faculty from Saint Louis University School of Medicine is hoping to reverse this deadly trend.

“Through SPOTS (Sun Protection Outreach Teaching by Students), we are training medical school students to go into middle schools and teach the kids about sun protection and skin cancer,” says Summer Youker, M.D., assistant professor of dermatology at Saint Louis University. Washington University School of Medicine also is participating in the program, believed to involve medical professionals in educating teens about preventing skin cancer.