In a new study, researchers found that SkinVision—the first CE-marked skin cancer application based on extensive clinical trials—has a sensitivity of 95.1% in detecting the most common forms of skin cancer.
The research was conducted by an international group of researchers working with Erasmus University Medical Center.
Skin cancer is a growing problem, with currently between 2 and 3 million non-melanoma skin cancers and 132,000 melanoma skin cancers occurring each year globally.
In fact, one in three cancers diagnosed is skin cancer. The good news is that 95% of skin cancers can be successfully treated if caught at an early stage.
In the study, the team evaluated the accuracy of the application for triaging skin lesions.
They used 285 validated skin cancer cases from two previously published clinical studies and the smartphone application user database.
They found that the SkinVision algorithm has high sensitivity to detect skin cancer and can be a valuable tool for early skin cancer detection.
The finding suggests SkinVision empowers individuals to take their skin health into their own hands by transforming their smartphone into a medical device for skin cancer risk assessment.
So far, SkinVision has assisted in the finding of more than 35,000 skin cancer cases globally and managed to direct those people to a healthcare professional for further examination.
According to the team, the service has the potential to triage those in need of treatment and could help to decrease both the average cost of treatment and the number of unnecessary doctor visits.
The company has built up a customer portfolio of 1,200,000 users globally and a database of 3.5 million pictures of suspicious and benign skin spots.
One author of the study is Tiago M. C. D. Marques, a postdoctoral researcher at Erasmus MC.
The study is published in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (JEADV).
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