A nurse checks for skin cancer using AI in Victor Harbor pop-up clinic.
The University of South Australia (UniSA) has launched the world’s first pop-up skin cancer clinic using artificial intelligence to help detect suspicious skin lesions.
Unveiling the service at the Tour Down Under in Victor Harbor, the University said that in partnership with the Skin Check Champions and Hospital Research Foundation it improved skin checks in regional South Australia where skin cancer was up to 31 per cent higher than in the city.
UniSA said the free service, delivered by nurses, used algorithms in conjunction with doctors’ clinical expertise to detect the skin cancer which affects two out of every three Australians during their lifetime.
Professor of Cancer Nursing at the University, Marion Eckert said distance was a big disadvantage when it came 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,” Professor Eckert said.
“More than 98 per cent of skin cancers can be successfully treated if they’re found early, which is why getting checked is so important,” she said.
Chief Executive of Skin Check Champions, Scott Maggs said the world-class AI technology performed as well as dermatologists, “even outclassing them in some experiments”.
Mr Maggs said however that control trials and more research were needed to validate the algorithms better.
“Our goal is to halve the number of Aussies who die from melanoma and increase the number of skin checks in Australia by 25 per cent by running a targeted AI-supported national skin check program,” Mr Maggs said.
“The project involves training nurses to take high-quality lesion images that are triaged and conditionally diagnosed by artificial intelligence algorithms to see if they are cancerous.”
“The results are verified by local GPs and, if required, patients are referred to dermatologists, most of whom are based in cities,” he said.
The inaugural AI-powered skin cancer clinic was stationed at Warland Reserve from 19-21 January, in collaboration with the Tour Down Under and Victor Harbor Art Show.
