Recognizing early forms of melanoma may have significant impact on decreasing mortality from this malignancy. As a result, multiple efforts have focused on developing new and improving current early detection strategies. These include educating patients about the importance of performing skin self-examination, increasing rates of complete skin examinations by physicians in the context of routine care, initiating mass screening campaigns, creating specialized skin cancer clinics, and developing better diagnostic tools through advances in technology. In this article, the current state of these efforts is reviewed.