Facial-Aging App Availability in Waiting Rooms as a Potential Opportunity for Skin Cancer Prevention

Facial-Aging App Availability in Waiting Rooms as a Potential Opportunity for Skin Cancer PreventionApproximately 90% of skin cancers are caused by UV exposure.Although dermatologists agree on the importance of primary prevention, busy clinicians often lack time and interventions at hand.Middle-aged men and HIV-positive patients undergoing immunosuppressive therapy are especially at risk of skin cancer, while research for these patient subgroups remains scarce. 1 A randomized clinical trial by Mahler et al 2 showed increased sun protection behavior associated with the use of UV photographs, which indicated the UV damage currently on the participant's face, among young adults at 4 to 5 months and 12 months of follow-up.However, the use of polaroid photography requires staff time, is outdated, does not illustrate future appearance, and is not readily available.Thus, in the waiting room of our HIV outpatient clinic, we provided a standalone version of a free facial-aging app called Sunface that was developed by one of the authors (T.J.B.).The app altered a 3-dimensional, animated selfie of the participant to approximate his or her future appearance based on UV exposure 3 (Figure 1).We aimed to develop a skin cancer prevention intervention that could be available to most patients visiting health care professionals and that would make salient the risks of UV exposure.