People flock to South Florida to enjoy our beaches and bask in the sun, but over exposure to ultraviolet rays can cause cancer.

Each year a million Americans learn they have skin cancer. Lisa Slusky is one of them. Growing up in Chicago, Slusky didn't spend much time in the sun, but when she turned 20 she started frequenting tanning salons up to five times a week.

"I looked good. I was thin. I exercised. I thought I was healthy," Sulsky said. At age 27, during a doctor's visit, she had a mole removed. Sulsky didn't give it a second thought until her follow up visit days later when she got the shock of her life. The mole was malignant.

Since then, Sulsky has been diligent about checkups and having moles removed regularly to prevent them from turning into melanoma.

Now she can get a new, high tech look at her moles through this computer system called Molemax. Dermatologist Dr. Adalaide Herbert points a special camera at a mole, then freezes the image. "We can actually test their moles and magnify them 30 times greater than we're able to with the naked eye. This can pick up potential warning signs of pre-cancers much earlier than normal magnifying tools used now."

In Sulsky's case Molemax shows her one mole with an irregular border, with jagged edges and a change in pigment. That's one her dermatologist will have to keep an eye on.

To help keep track of any skin changes that could signal cancer, Molemax is set up to map and measure all of a patients moles or lesions, then save them on a computer disk.

It allows comparison with side-by-side views. If a patient comes in a year, two years, even three years later, the dermatologist will know if the mole really has changed or if it looks exactly as it did in size and color when they first came in.

Molemax information can also be emailed or printed out for a patient's own doctor to evaluate, plus Molemax is set up to compare the shape and color of your moles to other moles that are suspicious or cancerous.

Sulsky now takes precautions before exposing her skin to cancer causing rays. She wears special sun protective clothing if she's going outdoors. If you just can't stay out of the sun, doctors recommend that you wear at least wear a sunscreen with a minimum of spf 15.

The Molemax scan takes 20 to 40 minutes and it costs $250, which some insurance companies are now covering.

The University of Miami's Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center has one of these unique systems.

If you're interested in finding out more about it you call the center at 305-243-4183.