Three Questions About: Skin Cancer Applications | SVT News

A growing number of mobile apps promise quick and easy skin blemish analysis using artificial intelligence.

But knowing whether an app is really reliable isn’t exactly easy. That’s shown by a new study led by Asa Ingvar, a dermatologist at Skane University Hospital and a researcher at Lund University.

The researchers reviewed 21 different mobile apps for analyzing skin spots that were offered by app services in Australia, but of the same type available for download in Sweden, according to Åsa Ingvar.

Not tested enough

None of the apps met the rating recommendations set by the medical professional associations. It's important information to understand the app's limitations, says Åsa Ingvar.

“This makes it difficult to understand whether you can trust the results or not,” she says.

Previous research has shown that many skin cancer apps have low accuracy and that assessment is flawed. There can be problems when AI has to analyze images it wasn’t trained on, for example taken with a different camera or on a person with a different skin type.

“The field is a bit dangerous.”

According to researchers, skin cancer apps often have a low threshold when it comes to warning of malignant skin changes. This can cause unnecessary anxiety and stress in care.

“Even us doctors and nurses can be influenced to take unnecessary biopsies for skin changes that we don’t think are serious, but when the patient says, ‘My AI says it could be malignant cancer,’” says Asa Ingvar.

She believes that AI technology for risk assessment should currently only be used by doctors.

In the video, dermatologist Asa Ingvar answers three questions about skin cancer apps, plus what to do instead.