DermLite LLC
In late 1999, out of an urge to innovate and excel, John Bottjer, Nizar Mullani, and Thorsten Trotzenberg founded 3Gen as a cutting-edge product design and development company situated in beautiful Orange County, California. At the 2001 meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology in Washington, D.C., we launched the DermLite DL100, the world`s first polarized pocket dermatoscope – at a time when dermoscopy in the United States had very few users and even fewer fans. Ever since then, we have been tireless in our efforts to help increase dermoscopy awareness and knowledge throughout the world, and the portability and ease of use of our products, combined with our adaptable, user-centric approach, as well as our direct and indirect investments in research, most certainly played no small part in ensuring substantial growth in dermoscopy.
Company details
Find locations served, office locations
- Business Type:
- Manufacturer
- Industry Type:
- Medical Equipment
- Market Focus:
- Globally (various continents)
This company also provides solutions for other industrial applications.
Please, visit the following links for more info:
Who Are We
Initially a classic garage operation, today's headquarters in San Juan Capistrano is a state-of-the-art facility where skillful technicians assemble and service our product line. Other team members are located all over the United States and beyond and develop, maintain and travel the world to promote DermLite dermoscopy.
With our founders' decades of experience in the design, engineering, and marketing of medical products as well as a solid foundation in imaging technology, we strive to be the leading force in the rapid development of innovative, technologically advanced and, most importantly, highly practical imaging products designed to help optimize the day-to-day workflow of today's and tomorrow's medical professionals.
The technology we incorporate into our products allows us to create design solutions with much better performance characteristics, greater efficiency, and longer life. But more importantly, we utilize a user-centric design approach that evolves making the user's life simpler and easier, with simple-to-use and intuitive products, allowing our customers to focus on what is truly important: the patient.
We back up our user-centric approach — because as much as we believe in our products, we do not believe in unhappy customers. If you find, for whatever reason, that you are not completely satisfied with your purchase, you may return your product and we will fully refund your purchase price.*
Speed and efficiency is important to all medical professionals. We know that time is money. Therefore, we design our products to be among the most affordable products at this level. Although we integrate only the best lighting components, optical lenses and energy sources, we try to keep our products simple, straightforward and, as a result, extraordinarily affordable.
Looking ahead, we realize that in today's world, new technology becomes old technology very quickly. We do everything in our power to move at high speeds and to be among the first to combine emerging and proven technologies to create even more functional and easier-to-use products.
*Reasonable restrictions apply. Officially, you have 30 days to return your device.
Why Dermoscopy
Dermoscopy significantly improves the in vivo diagnostic accuracy of melanoma.
Dermatologists only diagnose 65–80% of melanomas on routine naked-eye examination. For example, in the Oncology Section of the Skin and Cancer Unit of NYU Langone Medical Center the diagnostic accuracy was found to be only 64% (Grin et al., 1990). Dermoscopy improves diagnostic accuracy by 10–27% (Kittler et al., 2002).
Dermoscopy can differentiate most lesions of the skin from melanoma.
With naked-eye examination it is not unusual to come upon a pigmented lesion, which has some or all of the clinical attributes of melanoma, but on dermoscopy the lesion can be definitively diagnosed as some other type of cutaneous lesion.
Dermoscopy reduces unneeded biopsies.
Studies have shown that the “benign/malignant ratio” of pigmented lesions of the skin is eventually decreased when dermoscopy is used compared with visually unassisted diagnoses (Carli et al., 2004).
Basic instrumentation for dermoscopy is affordable.
Compared with some other available instruments used by dermatologists (e.g., reflectance confocal microscopy), dermoscopes are relatively inexpensive, thus making such technology affordable for most practitioners.
Dermoscopes are easy to use.
Placing liquid or gel onto the skin prior to placement of the glass plate of the dermoscope onto the lesion allows the clinician to view the lesion, through the magnifying ocular lens of the dermoscope, with exceptional clarity. The liquid interface, by matching the refractive index of the stratum corneum and glass plate, allows the clinician to visualize structures below the surface of the skin. The advent of polarized dermoscopes, however, has eliminated the necessity for a liquid interface or direct skin contact.
Several helpful algorithms have been created to aid in classifying lesions of the skin.
These algorithms have been created primarily for those who are beginning to use dermoscopy.
Dermoscopy has added a new powerful dimension to the clinical diagnosis of early melanoma.
The qualities of a “good test” are accuracy, no adverse effects, target disorder dangerous if left untreated, and effective treatment if diagnosed early (Jaeschke et al., 1994). Dermoscopy has all of these attributes since the target disorder, melanoma, if diagnosed and removed early in its evolution, is curable.
Dermoscopy is a noninvasive technique that allows microscopic visualization of subsurface skin structures not visible to the naked eye.
Thus, the use of dermoscopy does not require additional expense to the patient for invasive procedures, such as the performance of biopsy, cost of processing the biopsy specimen, and interpreting the dermatopathologic diagnosis. Eliminating unneeded biopsies translates to overall reduced health care costs.
Adding dermoscopy to complete skin examinations is not overly time consuming.
Zalaudek et al. (2008) have shown that, on average, complete skin examination takes 70 seconds without dermoscopy and 142 seconds with dermoscopy. The authors conclude that complete skin examination, with or without dermoscopy, usually takes less than 3 minutes. They profess this is a reasonable time to potentially prevent mortality from cancers of the skin.
Meta-analysis of the literature has demonstrated the superiority and usefulness of dermoscopy.
Numerous studies (Vestergaard et al., 2008; Bafounta et al., 2001) have provided data to indicate that the diagnostic accuracy of dermoscopy is superior to that of naked-eye examination.
Dermoscopy allows the observer to focus (concentrate) on the lesion.
The procedure forces a pause during the busy total cutaneous clinical examination allowing time to think and formulate a logical differential diagnosis. Dermoscopy provides another chance to rethink the naked-eye examination conclusion allowing for a second opportunity to make the correct diagnosis.
Dermoscopy helps differentiate melanocytic from nonmelanocytic lesions.
This concept is explained in the “two-step” initial dermoscopic procedure, which differentiates melanocytic from nonmelanocytic lesions.
Dermoscopy increases the observers’ confidence in their clinical diagnoses.
It has been shown that, compared with naked eye examination of lesions of the skin, dermoscopy engenders greater degree of confidence in the correctness of the clinical diagnosis (Wang et al., 2008). The procedure also assures the patient that additional steps have been taken regarding the decision whether or not the lesion should be biopsied. When the confidence in a dermoscopic examination of a lesion reaches 100% that the lesion is benign, biopsy is almost always avoided.
Dermoscopy helps in the surveillance of patients with many melanocytic nevi.
In such patients certain lesions have attributes that do not meet the full criteria for melanoma but have some “suspicious” features. By using a comparative approach and short-term (i.e., every three months) sequential dermoscopic digital imaging, the lesions that appear similar to each other or remain unchanged or changed in a benign way can be followed (Altamura et al., 2008; Argenziano, 2011).
What is DermLite
DermLite and Early Skin Cancer Detection
The DermLite line of devices enable the trained eye to detect skin cancer and other types of skin conditions early. Every DermLite includes a magnification lens, light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, and most have polarizing filters for glare reduction. These polarizing filters eliminate the need for skin contact and the required liquids, allowing a much quicker, more convenient examination.
DermLite is Portable.
Contrary to the vast majority of other devices for skin lesion diagnosis, DermLite is designed to be small enough so that you can easily take it anywhere you need to go.
DermLite is Efficient.
With the elimination of immersion fluids, there is no setup required. The inconveniences of immersion fluids are a thing of the past. You'll work quicker, allowing you to screen more lesions on more patients than ever before. Plus, DermLite's LEDs last much longer, use a lot less energy and are white and brighter than ancient bulbs used in other devices.
DermLite is the Future.
Entire classes of dermatology residents are using DermLite as their skin cancer detection tool of choice for its portability, efficiency and convenience. Make DermLite a part of your future today.