Skin cancer, psoriasis keeping new dermatologist busy

Two years after opening up her practice on P.E.I., Dr. Catherine Rodriguez is getting a sense of what conditions she will be seeing the most of.

• Dermatologist coming to P.E.I.

Rodriguez, the province's only dermatologist, told CBC News the most common cases she sees are psoriasis and skin cancer.

That's not surprising, she said, because the Canadian Cancer Society reports P.E.I. has the highest rates of melanoma in the country.

Hoping for new technology

Rodriguez believes P.E.I.'s high rate of melanoma is likely due to the number of people with Celtic background, who have fair skin, red hair and blue eyes.

Rodriguez said she'd like to be able to use some newer technology to help screen for skin cancer.

"What we do right now is clinically we note different lesions on a diagram and we follow the patients with those measures and those diagrams," she said.

"Eventually I'd like to be able to offer a more digital type of mole mapping where we do full body photographs."

Rodriguez recommends that people should examine their whole body every one or two months, and be aware of anything on their skin that's new or changing.

Clearing the backlog

The most common things Rodriguez refers people off-Island for is skin patch testing for eczema, which isn't available on the Island.

Rodriguez opened her practice in January of 2015. The province had no dermatologist at the time. The last one retired in 2011.

Those years without a dermatologist meant a big backlog when she started.

Her wait list is now three to four months for routine cases, while more urgent cases can be seen quickly.

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