Smartphone apps used as ‘early warning systems’ for skin cancer are poorly regulated and frequently cannot be relied upon to produce accurate results, according to new analysis by experts at the University of Birmingham.
Skin cancer detection apps are designed to ensure that the right people seek medical attention by providing a risk assessment of a new or changing mole. These apps use specialised algorithms to try to detect possible skin cancers.
Skin cancer has one of the highest global incidences of any cancer. Early detection and treatment, particularly of melanoma, can improve survival. According to this new analysis, however, apps may cause harm from failure to identify potentially fatal skin cancers, or from over-investigation of false positive results—for example removing a harmless mole unnecessarily.
The research team was also concerned by the quality of the studies themselves, which evaluated apps using images taken by experts rather than by app users. In addition, many studies did not identify whether lesions identified as ‘low risk’ by the apps were in fact benign, further compromising the conclusions that can be drawn from the evaluations.
The team also has made a series of recommendations for future studies of smartphone apps:
- Studies must be based on clinically-relevant population of smartphone users who may have concerns about their risk of skin cancer
- All skin lesions identified by smartphone users must be included—not just those identified as potentially problematic
- Clinical follow-up of benign lesions must be included in the study to provide more reliable and generalizable results.
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