A practical, consultant-led course covering lesion assessment, biopsy and excision planning, facial margins, direct closure, complications and referral.
Facial skin cancer management depends on a series of small but consequential decisions: identifying the lesion, choosing the right biopsy or excision, selecting an appropriate margin, planning the closure and recognising when the safest decision is referral. This course is built around those decisions.
Recognise the common facial presentations of BCC, SCC and pigmented lesions. Identify high-risk features, anatomical danger zones and lesions that require referral before intervention.
Choose between biopsy, excision and referral. Plan margins, photography, specimen orientation, consent and documentation before touching the skin.
Perform elliptical excision and layered direct closure while respecting facial subunits, relaxed skin tension lines and critical underlying anatomy.
Respond appropriately to bleeding, haematoma, infection, wound-edge compromise, dehiscence, suture removal, scar care and the cosmetically disappointing result — and know when further specialist care is required.
Recognise the common facial presentations of BCC, SCC and pigmented lesions. Identify high-risk features, anatomical danger zones and lesions that require referral before intervention.
Choose between biopsy, excision and referral. Plan margins, photography, specimen orientation, consent and documentation before touching the skin.
Perform elliptical excision and layered direct closure while respecting facial subunits, relaxed skin tension lines and critical underlying anatomy.
Respond appropriately to bleeding, haematoma, infection, wound-edge compromise, dehiscence, suture removal, scar care and the cosmetically disappointing result — and know when further specialist care is required.
Twenty clinicians. Four groups of five. Two consultant plastic surgeons, supported by two experienced clinical facilitators, so every rotation station has an instructor present. Direct expert feedback throughout the practical sessions.
Consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon and co-founder of SPARC Institute. Ryan is the founder of ThePlasticsFella, an international plastic surgery education platform used by clinicians across more than 180 countries. His clinical practice includes skin cancer surgery, facial reconstruction and multidisciplinary management of cutaneous malignancy.
Consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon and co-founder of SPARC Institute. Ryan established the plastic surgery service on the Sunshine Coast and has decades of experience in skin cancer surgery, reconstruction and the management of complex surgical complications.
Practical training is conducted on facial simulation models. No live patients are used, and no participant-to-participant procedures are performed.
One patient's journey anchors the day. You move from lesion assessment and planning, into a 90-minute core laboratory where every participant performs a full facial excision and closure, then through four anatomical stations that pair genuine technique with the harder clinical decisions — margins, danger anatomy, referral thresholds and aftercare — with faculty at your shoulder throughout.
Each group of five is assigned a facial lesion case at the start of the day. The same patient is followed through the entire program — from the first consultation to the histology result.
Coffee, groups of five assigned, one facial lesion case handed to each group. That case is the spine of the day.
Where the GP sits in the facial skin cancer pathway — what is safely managed in primary care, and what belongs with a plastic or dermatologic surgeon.
History, examination and reading the lesion on facial skin. High-risk features, anatomical danger zones and the biopsy vs. excise vs. refer decision — worked through on each group's case.
Everything that has to be decided before the skin is touched — margins, photography, specimen orientation, consent, local anaesthetic choice and anticoagulation — applied to the same case each group carries. By lunch, each group has produced a management decision, a marked clinical photograph, a proposed margin, a pathology request, a consent plan, an anticoagulation plan, and a follow-up and histology-tracking plan for their case.
Selecting margins by lesion type and location, orienting the specimen, photographing the field and writing a pathology request that returns a usable answer.
Structured facial consent. Local anaesthetic choice, safe volume and infiltration technique. Managing patients on anticoagulants and antiplatelets. Each group produces the operative plan for their case.
Ninety minutes of practical technique on facial simulation models. Every participant completes at least one full simulated excision and layered closure during this laboratory. This is not basic suturing — the value is facial-specific refinement and direct correction of technique.
Facial incision orientation, handling thin and sun-damaged skin, haemostasis, safe undermining, reducing tension, buried dermal placement, edge eversion, fine epidermal closure, avoiding landmark distortion, and suture and dressing selection. Direct closure only.
Four groups of five rotate through four anatomical stations. Two models per station. Participants work in pairs, and the decision-lead role rotates. Only the cheek and forehead station involves a completed simulated excision — the nose, lip and periocular stations are explicitly non-excision judgment stations, reinforcing referral thresholds.
Groups of five. One consultant or clinical facilitator per station. Each station has one explicit participant task.
Apply and refine the complete direct-closure sequence on the cheek — design, haemostasis, undermining, tension reduction and layered closure — and mark the periocular boundary where that same technique becomes unsafe.
Map the danger anatomy of the temple — temporal branch of the facial nerve, superficial temporal vessels — plan a safe biopsy or referral, and articulate where forehead undermining crosses into unacceptable risk.
Assess a simulated lesion, choose biopsy versus referral, mark the proposed plan and justify why routine elliptical excision is inappropriate on the nose.
Identify vermilion and white-roll landmarks, plan the intervention, and demonstrate the closure vectors that would distort the lip — and therefore require referral.
Active, not lecture. Each group's case is picked back up with a histology result and a complication card, worked through in short cycles: decide, present, correct, rehearse the patient conversation.
Reading the report, tracking systems that stop results from falling through, and what a positive or close margin actually requires next.
Each group draws a complication or unexpected-result card — bleeding, haematoma, infection, wound-edge compromise, dehiscence, suture-removal timing, scar care or a cosmetically disappointing result. Five minutes to decide the next step, then explain the plan to the room.
Faculty corrects the decision and provides the practical framework. Each group then rehearses the patient conversation — including the positive-margin conversation and referral disposition.
Final disposition of each group's case. Referral thresholds consolidated across cheek, nose, lip and periocular. Practical takeaways for Monday morning.
Assess common facial skin cancers and identify high-risk clinical features.
Choose appropriately between biopsy, excision and specialist referral.
Select margins based on lesion type, risk and facial location.
Document, photograph and consent facial procedures appropriately.
Perform elliptical excision and layered direct closure on facial simulation models.
Recognise complications, respond to positive margins and establish an appropriate referral plan.
Assess common facial skin cancers and identify high-risk clinical features.
Choose appropriately between biopsy, excision and specialist referral.
Select margins based on lesion type, risk and facial location.
Document, photograph and consent facial procedures appropriately.
Perform elliptical excision and layered direct closure on facial simulation models.
Recognise complications, respond to positive margins and establish an appropriate referral plan.
This course is designed for GPs and other appropriately registered clinicians who already perform basic skin excision and want to improve their decision-making and direct-closure technique on the face.
Completion of the course does not alter a participant's authorised scope of practice or indemnity cover. Participants continue to practise within their workplace credentialling and organisational requirements.
A single private venue on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. Approximately 90 minutes north of Brisbane by road, with a domestic airport at Maroochydore. Full logistics and accommodation notes are sent on booking confirmation.
Almost four hours of practical and simulation-based learning: a 90-minute core excision laboratory (where every participant completes a full simulated excision and layered closure), four anatomical rotations in groups of five — one technique station and three judgment stations — and the operative-planning and complication segments of the longitudinal case. The rest of the day is consultation, assessment, consent, histology and disposition — worked through on your group's case, not delivered as lectures.
You should already be comfortable with instruments, basic elliptical excision and simple interrupted suturing. This is a facial-refinement course, not an introduction to skin surgery.
No. The course is deliberately scoped to direct closure on facial subunits — plus the referral thresholds for when a flap, graft or Mohs is the right answer. That referral pathway is a core teaching point.
No. The course provides specialist-led education. It does not alter your Ahpra scope, medical indemnity or workplace credentialling — you should confirm your insurer covers facial excision within your rooms.
No. All practical work is on facial simulation models.
Nothing. Instruments, models, sutures, consumables, reference cards and a take-home practice kit are all included.
RACGP and ACRRM CPD accreditation is in progress. Participants may also self-record the activity through their CPD home in the interim. Confirmed CPD status will be published here before booking closes.
On the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. The exact venue is confirmed on booking.
Cancellations more than 30 days before the course are refunded less a A$95 administration fee. Places can be transferred to another eligible clinician at any time. Full terms are provided on booking confirmation.
Submit your details to hold a place. We will confirm eligibility and send the payment link. Your place will remain reserved for 48 hours.
Founding-cohort rate. Closes 10 August 2026, or when the cohort fills. Subsequent cohorts will be offered at A$1,495.
Cancellations more than 30 days before the course are refunded less a A$95 administration fee. Places may be transferred to another eligible clinician at any time. Full cancellation and transfer policy is provided on booking confirmation.
RACGP and ACRRM CPD accreditation in progress.
