Stanford Medicine Researchers Develop New Skin Cancer Screening App To Aid Senior Citizens Who Are Avoiding Screening Visits Due To Fears Of COVID-19

lordn - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purpose only, not the actual person
lordn - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purpose only, not the actual person

Since threats of COVID-19 pushed the world into isolation, one demographic has had to be exponentially more cautious about in-person contact– senior citizens.

In an effort to protect themselves against the coronavirus, though, other essential healthcare habits among older adults have fallen to the wayside. These include regularly scheduled skin cancer screenings.

Nearly ten thousand people are diagnosed with skin cancer in the U.S. every single day– affecting over three million Americans each year, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.

But, over forty percent of melanomas are found in patients over the age of sixty-five.

In turn, decreasing skin cancer screenings due to fears of COVID-19 can mean an exponential amount of unknown diagnoses in older people.

In fact, compared to 2019, screening visits plummeted by thirty-seven percent, and skin cancer diagnoses decreased twenty-three percent in 2020.

Kavita Sarina, an associate professor of dermatology at Stanford Medicine, reviewed these stats and decided that change needed to happen immediately to save the lives of older Americans.

So, she drew inspiration from other technology used to keep people connected during the pandemic and conceptualized a mobile app study to help older adults seek safe and accessible dermatological care.

“This study was born out of a clinical responsibility to our patients,” Sarina explained.

lordn – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purpose only, not the actual person

Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.

Beginning in November of 2020, she and her team conducted a pilot study using the mobile app SkinIO.

This platform allows everyday people to take high-resolution photos of potentially cancerous growths and send them to medical teams for review.

The study aimed to ascertain the app’s effectiveness among twenty-seven residents who lived in a San Francisco Bay Area retirement community. And just last month, the study’s results were finally published in Skin Health and Disease.

First, research coordinators visited the retirement facility and captured full-body images of the residents on the app.

The app was then able to analyze and scan each photo for skin abnormalities using machine learning. Any lesion that looked suspicious was flagged for more in-depth review by dermatologists.

Afterward, the research coordinators forwarded the photos to Sarin, who analyzed and flagged any patients’ lesions that appeared cancerous.

Finally, virtual visits were scheduled for Sarin to meet with all of the patients and go over her findings.

Of all the skin lesions captured, the app flagged sixty-three percent of them as potentially cancerous.

Most of the abnormalities did end up being benign. However, the technology also helped Sarin identify skin cancer in three out of the twenty-seven patients.

The research team is now brainstorming how to successfully educate older adults on taking these pictures without a staff aide.

This would help grow the app’s reach without relying on limited hospital staff and resources to dispatch them. 

“We need to continue thinking about how we can best serve our most vulnerable patients during this difficult time,” Sarin underscored. 

To read the study’s complete findings, visit the link here

If true crime defines your free time, this is for you: join Chip Chick’s True Crime Tribe.

She Told Her Ex That It’s Not Her Problem That He Doesn’t Have Any Money Because His New Wife Could Easily Get A Job

The Eastern State Penitentiary In Philadelphia Is Known As The Most Haunted Place In America, And Here’s Everything You Need To Know About What Happened Inside The Walls

This Woman Booked An Airbnb In Bali That Turned Out To Be An Abandoned Building

She Knew Her Sister-In-Law Was Snooping On Her, So She Got Revenge Using A Life-Size Cutout Of Dwayne Johnson

This Study Confirmed That Imposter Syndrome Is Real And Can Be Detrimental To Mental Health

Ever Since She Got A Job At Hooters, Her Roommate Has Been Making Passive-Aggressive Remarks, So She Finally Told Her Off

Katharina Buczek graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Digital Arts. Specializing ... More about Katharina Buczek

More About: