The 3 M’s define our process for high-quality photos.

Mark

Lesional marking is critical to identify the biopsy-site within a photograph. Marking requires:

• Using a skin marking pen
• Drawing a solid circle or a dotted circle around the lesion to be biopsied.

Other indicators such as arrows, fingers or pens should NOT be used. It is ok to also include a ruler sticker in the photo, but this should not replace the solid or dotted circle.

Magnify:

One of the two photos taken should be a zoomed-in photo. This helps capture morphology and surrounding features which may help in site identification. Pro-tip: use “zoom” on your device rather than holding the camera very close to the lesion!

Map:

If anatomic landmarks are not included in the zoomed-in photo, another zoomed-out photo should be taken. The photo must have one or more unambiguous anatomic landmarks.This is critical to unambiguously identify the precise site of the lesion, including laterality.

Anatomic landmarks include fixed features such as features (i.e. eyebrows, nose, umbilicus) and joints (i.e. wrist, sternum, knee). See the BLSi poster below to see positions to maximize landmarks.