Prevalence of Total Body Skin Examinations among Dermatology Encounters in Medicare Data: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Total body skin exams (TBSEs) are one of the most common reasons for dermatology visits ( Peck et al., 2022 Peck G.M. Roberson F.A. Feldman S.R. Why Do Patients in the United States Seek Care from Dermatologists?. Dermatol Ther (Heidelb). 2022; 12: 1065-1072 Google Scholar ). The amount of time dermatologists spend conducting TBSEs remains unknown. Evaluating how dermatologists manage their time is important, as long wait times are a barrier to dermatologic care ( Yadav et al., 2016 Yadav G. Goldberg H.R. Barense M.D. Bell C.M. A Cross-Sectional Survey of Population-Wide Wait Times for Patients Seeking Medical vs. Cosmetic Dermatologic Care. PLoS One. 2016; 11e0162767 Google Scholar ). We investigated the proportion of dermatology encounters that include TBSEs in a large sample of Medicare patients.