Nearly 15,000 Britons a year are diagnosed with malignant melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer. But if it’s caught early, the chances of survival are very good.
The cancer generally appears as changes to existing moles, but it can be hard to distinguish dangerous moles from harmless ones.
Until recently, this could only be done by a skilled dermatologist using high-tech equipment such as a dermatoscope — which can magnify mole images ten times and identify how far into the body the mole has penetrated, a sign of how aggressive they are.
The SkinVision app uses a technique called fractal geometry, which looks for patterns in the outlines and dimensions of a mole that make it more likely to be malignant. It then classes it as high, medium or low risk.
