Lorraine L. Rosamilia, MD
Dr. Rosamilia is from the Department of Dermatology, Geisinger Health System, State College, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Rosamilia reports no conflicts of interest in relation to this post.

JAMA Dermatology (formerly Archives of Dermatology) reported a study (Arch Dermatol. 2012;148:1083-1084) on the diagnosis of pigmented lesions by dermatologists compared with the MelaFind device (Mela Sciences), a handheld light unit that produces a 3-dimensional computer image of a pigmented lesion with subsequent recommendation of “high disorganization” versus “low disorganization.”

Lorraine L. Rosamilia, MD

Dr. Rosamilia is from the Department of Dermatology, Geisinger Health System, State College, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Rosamilia reports no conflicts of interest in relation to this post.

Cancer recently reported dermatologically germane data from the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study in which a large cohort of postmenopausal white women aged 50 to 79 years were followed by health questionnaire and clinic visits at 40 national sites over 12 years, highlighting risk factors and associations with heart disease, cancer, and fractures. In a subset of nearly 60,000 women in the study, 548 incident melanomas were confirmed, and data regarding skin type, sun exposure, skin cancer history, and medication use were analyzed.

Jonathan I. Silverberg, MD, PhD, MPH

Dr. Silverberg is from the Department of Dermatology, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, New York.

Dr. Silverberg reports no conflicts of interest in relation to this post.

A May 4, 2012, Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article discussed the increased usage of observational studies in clinical research despite being prone to methodological and statistical biases and possibly flawed results. Observational studies are commonly used to study associations between various exposures, such as environmental risk factors or treatment, and disease outcomes. Observational studies differ from prospectively controlled studies in that participants are assigned to an exposure or treatment group that is not controlled in the study. Typically, data are retrospectively collected from sources ranging from small single-site chart reviews to international epidemiologic databases and comprehensive health management organization cohorts. The WSJ article featured 2 studies from 2010: one published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2010;304:657-663) and the other in the British Medical Journal (BMJ)(2010;341:C4444) on the use of osteoporosis drugs and risk for esophageal cancer. The studies found entirely conflicting results despite being performed on the exact same database.