DermaSnap. Converting smartphones into dermatological tools

Juan Daniel Prades

Fundació Bosch i Gimpera, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain

Each year, 2 to 3 million cases of skin cancer are diagnosed worldwide, one third of all cancers, with melanoma being the deadliest skin cancer. In advanced stages, it is often incurable and treatment costs are very high, but if diagnosed early, the 5-year survival rate is 97 %.

While dermatologists detect 95 % of cases, primary care physicians only detect 59 %. Applying telemedicine in dermatology seems a more than reasonable option to increase survival and decrease waiting lists. However, although the correct interpretation of skin color is critical for diagnosing this and other pathologies, the existing photographic technology is not able to reproduce color reliably, suffering a great distortion in digital images, due, among other factors, to the ambient lighting.

Dermasnap, thanks to an automatic color recognition method, makes any Smartphone a reliable and more precise dermatological tool than the human brain. In addition to helping to radically improve a public health problem and reduce its economic impact, its simplicity makes it ideal for empowering patients and providing access to specialized medical services in remote rural areas.