Mohs Society Europe
Society for promotion of Mohs Surgery and outpatient dermatosurgery
About us
The Mohs Society Europe - Society for promotion of Mohs Surgery and outpatient dermatosurgery was founded in 2023 to contribute to the following mentioned challenges below, with the aim of promoting Mohs surgery in Europe and advocating outpatient dermatosurgery in private practice.
Europe is faced with the challenge that, due to historical developments and the political interests of the medical professions, social insurance institutions and politicians, the actual welfare of society has taken a back seat to affordable, best medical treatment.
In many European countries, state hospitals and social insurance systems are no longer able to provide the necessary care and, from an objective point of view, the costs can no longer be financed due to the multiple inefficiencies of the social insurance and the state medical system.
In detail, this even goes so far that the scientifically recognized best methods are not used and treatment costs that are far too high in hospitals are obligatory under social insurance law, instead of enabling cost-effective treatment in the outpatient sector.
In Europe, there are still countries such as Austria where Mohs surgery is not widespread, even though it has the highest cure rates compared to other tumor therapies and is based on broad scientific evidence.
In particular, the process-oriented service concept in Mohs surgery with the achievement of the smallest possible surgical defect, the certainty for the patient that the tumor has been completely removed and the possibility of performing the operation on an outpatient setting within a few hours should arouse the interest of Mohs surgery within all dermatosurgeons.
In Austria and other countries in Europe, there are no training positions for Mohs surgery and no standardized fellowships are available, as it is common in the USA. There is also a lack of willing teachers and mentors in Europe who are happy to pass on the technique of Mohs surgery. Rather, these few Mohs surgeons in Europe often see themselves as an elitist group who do not want to share their knowledge instead of striving for the best in patient care by spreading this excellent surgical procedure. For a good education as a Mohs surgeon someone often has to travel far to the USA or Australia where there is no envy mentality.
At the same time, there is a tendency in some European countries such as Germany and Austria to prefer other micrographically controlled procedures over Mohs surgery for social security and billing reasons, despite the fact that Mohs surgery has been used for decades in Anglo-American countries, is certainly based on the broadest evidence and represents the greatest patient comfort in treatment. Like Dr. Lena Hampel, President of the Mohs Society Europe quote at the inaugural event on 10 June 2023: 'Slow Mohs is no Mohs'.
Furthermore, other micrographically controlled procedures are sometimes incorrectly named as Mohs surgery, but differ significantly in their approach from the original Mohs surgical process and therefore do not offer the advantages of Mohs surgery, which is often not made transparent to the patient.
The above-mentioned insurance and billing aspects in Austria and Germany also result in the common practice in many places of performing dermatosurgical procedures in the hospital, even in some cases on an inpatient basis, although these can be performed safely and efficiently in an outpatient setting, as is standard practice in the USA, Australia and Switzerland. Outpatient dermatosurgery in private practice not only has many advantages for the patient, but would also be much cheaper than dermatosurgery performed in the hospital and would address the current shortage of staff in the healthcare system. This would require a rethink in politics and a change in deadlocked systems.
These challenges gave rise to the idea of the Mohs Society Europe which, unlike other European societies, does not focus on individuals (surgeons) but on the Mohs process itself and is committed to preserving Mohs surgery with its special surgical and histological techniques in Europe and strengthening dermatosurgery in an outpatient setting and thus creates added value for our society.