THE world's first pop-up skin cancer clinic that uses artificial intelligence to help detect suspicious skin lesions was launched at the Tour Down Under in Victor Harbor yesterday.
The free service, delivered by nurses, uses algorithms in conjunction with doctors' clinical expertise to detect skin cancer, which affects two out of every three Australians during their lifetime.
Thanks to a partnership between national health charity Skin Check Champions, the University of South Australia (UniSA) and The Hospital Research Foundation, the new nurse-led model delivered via pop-up clinics is being piloted to improve skin checks in regional South Australia, where skin cancer rates are up to 31% higher than people in metropolitan areas.
UniSA Professor in Cancer Nursing, Marion Eckert, said distance is a big disadvantage when it comes to skin screening services.
"Skin cancer prevention programs are under-funded and under-resourced, especially outside large cities, despite melanoma being the third most diagnosed cancer in Australia and melanoma killing four Australians every day," Eckert said.
Skin Check Champions CEO Scott Maggs said the world-class AI technology has performed as well as dermatologists, even outclassing them in some experiments, although control trials and more research are needed to better validate the algorithms.
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