Most of Healthcare branches are on the verge of change with Artificial Intelligence.
The 1st real success is going to be in the imagery aspect where AI is going to make the diagnosis of the problem much easier using sophisticated machine learning algorithms for image analysis.
In this article, we are going to talk about Dermatology, a branch of healthcare which deals with diseases of the skin.
A few days back a startup named MDAcne has been selected and funded by Y Combinator the hallowed accelerator in Silicon Valley, USA. A patient can upload his or her picture and on the basis of image analysis using Neural networks, MDAcne can classify whether you have acne or not. And depending upon your acne and its severity app will suggest you disease management guidelines and connect you to a relevant doctor with whom you can discuss via tele-consultations.
This is going to be more or less the use-case for many skin diseases where there will be specialized apps where a patient’s photo can be uploaded and on the basis of that diagnosis will be done and further disease management and doctor will be suggested.
This will also be targeted towards general physicians also who can make the diagnosis of skin diseases and refer patient to the concerned dermatologist.
Gitte Aabo, the president and CEO of LEO Pharma, a big pharma company focussed on Dermatology in Sweden, says “We are particularly interested, at the moment, in the combination of imaging and artificial intelligence. Currently, general practitioners, or family doctors, have a limited ability to diagnose a skin disease. Studies show that only about 50 percent of eczema cases, for instance, are correctly diagnosed by these GPs. By combining imaging technology with pictures taken on a mobile phone, you can build up knowledge, over time, about what eczema looks like or what a melanoma looks like. We’ve recently invested in a company whose app to detect melanoma can provide as accurate a diagnosis, with images taken by an individual patient, as the best specialists. ”
Leo Pharma has set up a digital innovation lab, LEO innovation lab with a fund of 60 million euros to create digital solutions. So pharmaceutical companies are also realizing the power of AI and are investing a huge amount of money in creating image analysis algorithms and digital solutions.
Similarly, AI can be used to correctly find whether the patient is diagnosed with Psoriasis or Seborrheic Dermatitis, one issue where many Dermatologists also are not able to make correct Diagnosis.
Extending further, Stanford Research scientists have created AI to detect skin cancer and they are saying their algorithm can detect skin cancer from a picture as accurately as a Dermatologist.
In closing, Dermatology is one branch where tele-consultation has had a big effect and KiviHealth believes AI will have an even bigger impact on Dermatology. We on our end are working on OCR and image analysis using machine learning which will be released soon for both patients and Doctors and also is working with Doctors to design Disease management programs.
