Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DermoSafe 2.0 (An Integral Platform for the Early Diagnosis of Skin Cancer)
Teaser
An early detection of skin cancer is definitively crucial for patient and for the healthcare system. It gives more than 95% chance of recovery, treatment cost at this stage is few thousands Euro, while the 5-years survival rate at advances stages drops as low as 10%, and...
Summary
An early detection of skin cancer is definitively crucial for patient and for the healthcare system. It gives more than 95% chance of recovery, treatment cost at this stage is few thousands Euro, while the 5-years survival rate at advances stages drops as low as 10%, and treatment costs can rise to more than 140.000€.
Overall skin disease is one of the most common human illnesses, more than 1 Billion people are affected by skin conditions and affects between 30% and 70% of individuals. Despite impact, skin disease debate at national and global level is at its early stage. Although apparently skin diseases are perceived as being less severe than other diseases their real impact on quality of life is far more significant.
In most EU countries, access to dermatologist resources are very limited. Dermatologists cannot cope with the general increase demand (population aging, continuous increase of skin cancer incidence, etc) leading to very long waiting list and or missing skin medical care for more critical cases. Efficient triage of patient prior to access a specialist is the future of any efficient healthcare system.
DermoSafe aims to be the 1st patient centric and multi-channels web service platform for dermatology E-triage, skin inflammatory diseases and skin cancer screening by dermoscopy, based on advanced neuronal artificial intelligence network supporting patients, healthcare professionals and our certified board of dermatologists.
The specific objective of the feasibility study was to provide proofs that the concept of DermoBrain, when integrated into our secure E-triage web platform, is technically feasible and commercially scalable with an appropriate business model.
This feasibility study enable us to review our market strategy and refine positioning versus current competition, and especially to gain very important clarification on the compliance and regulation of artificial intelligence within the field of healthcare
Work performed
Our worked has been mainly focused on how DermoBrain, an artificial intelligence algorithms (using deep learning convolutional neural networks) based on images analysis and patient anamnesis data, could be technically developed and integrated into the existing DermoSafe platform v1.0. The study addresses questions like how it can reach an acceptable performance for medical application, how to build the different AI modules and features in order to have the capability to explain the “black box†necessary for the validation process and how to comply with medical norms and regulation.
We have proceeded with a thorough technical and commercial risk assessment, evaluated all requirement for CE and FDA compliance and regulation, proceeded with feasibility tests on our preliminary version of DermoBrain, evaluated state of the art, analyzed competitor IP’s and ensure that there is no commercial risk and only mitigate risk for FTO (freedom to operate).
Our preliminary test shows that we can already achieve a E-triage with much higher negative and positive predictive values compare to conventional screening done by primary care healthcare professional.
We have also proceeded with deep market analysis and decided to refine slightly our market positioning. We have worked on specifying all features required on our platform based on KOL and different stakeholders.
Our feasibility study validated most aspect of our technology and commercial approach, and also enable us to refine couple of strategic differentiator and strategic market position. We have worked with PwC (Pricewaterhouse Coopers) to validate our assumptions and assessments.
Final results
Standard tele-dermoscopy e-triage solution as today with DermoSafe 1.0 has clear limitation and barriers for fast market roll out and to broaden access to population that should benefit from skin cancer screening and/or to have a reliable skin lesion assessment on whether a visit to a dermatologist is required or not, and if yes, with what level of urgency.
Also, for assessments done only by a dermatologist via “standard†tele dermoscopy has also, soon or later, human resources limitation. It is important to consider that dermoscopy is a dermatology specialization that requires more than 1 year training and experience to bring all its benefits. Therefore it is required to have more automatic computing process to provide assistance to the dermatologist to make it efficient and safer for high numbers of daily cases to assess.
Worldwide, there are 2 to 3 million new cases of skin cancer detected every year, and half of those are detected rather late which drastically increases the treatment cost and is a life threatening factor. Providing easier access to the very limited number of dermatologists by having upstream and efficient and safe e-triage is a solution to improve the healthcare system and eventually can save a lot of patient lifes.
Our DermoSafe 2.0 will improve patient empowerment and connection with the healthcare professionals and dermatologist.
Website & more info
More info: http://www.dermosafe.com.