iPhones to Identify Skin Cancer in Sweden :

40,000 people get skin cancer every year in Sweden, and this number is increasing at 7% a year which is similar to other western countries. Not all forms of skin cancer are fatal; however, nearly all skin cancers can be cured if discovered early enough.?Nevertheless, skin cancer can be difficult to diagnose by a doctor who is untrained in skin diseases, while a trained dermatologist can diagnose skin cancer at a much higher rate.?

In Sweden, 80% of doctors have a smartphone. Physicians have started to realize that these smartphones can be used as medical tools. Third party smartphone ?add ons? and apps have made it possible to ?ask a specialist? through smartphone communication.?We looked at the possibility of using the built-in digital camera in a smartphone, a customized dermoscope (a special microscope to look at the skin), and a smartphone application to carry out ?teledermoscopic? evaluations of suspicious skin lesions.

The diagnostic accuracy of the dermatologist meeting the patient face-to-face was comparable to that of the two?teledermoscopist. Adequate management decisions were provided by the dermatologist in the clinic and by the first teledermoscopist for all 69 lesions and for 68 out of 69 lesions (98.6%) by the second?teledermoscopist. One melanoma was missed by the second teledermoscopist.

In our study there was one malignant melanoma missed.? To prevent this in a real clinical setting it is important that all dermatologists are adequately trained and that where there are difficult cases they can request another dermatologist?s opinion. In breast cancer screening which is another area of diagnostic difficulty, it is normal that there are two radiologists diagnosing to prevent missed breast cancers.

From an economical point of view it is therefore favorable if the ratio of ?not skin cancer? to ?skin cancer? is low. This ratio can possibly be lower if dermatologists with dermoscopy training are used. Our study has indicated that this ratio can have a similar rate with teledermoscopy as of face-to-face examination with a dermascope by a dermatologist.

Shubhro

Source: http://www.jamesbom.com/iphones-identify-skin-cancer-sweden.html

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