The Ed.
Well-Known Member
I'm often exasperated by ridiculous beauty news, but it's not often than I'm angered. Scaremongering is one thing. It's a constant battle that we fight, but I suppose, if push came to shove, I'd rather people were forced to ask questions about the health and safety of certain products (even if they are entirely unfounded) rather than be led into a false sense of security by computer programmers determined to make a buck or two.
Medical apps are on the rise and some of them are causing serious concerns amongst the medical community including those that claim to diagnose your dodgy looking moles. These apps compare self-taken pictures of your mole with a database of known nasty melanomas and cancers to determine whether yours is potentially dangerous, or not. All very well and good, if they get it right, but the don't. A new study published on the JAMA Dermatology website showed that they don't even get it right often.
Of the four apps tested, three of them "misclassified 30% or more of melanomas as benign," which means that they diagnosed the moles as safe when they definitely were not safe. The study was done by members of the dermatology department at the University of Pittsburgh and who tested the apps against 60 images of classified melanomas and 128 images of benign moles. Because of the high rate of misdiagnosis, the study concluded that not only do the apps not work, but that they are in fact causing harm to those replacing medical attention with an app.
Speaking to Allure, Mona Gohara, a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine said, "This study highlights that you can miss a melanoma diagnosis and one miss is one too many because you can die from it. Caught early skin cancer can be treated." Gohara concluded, "If you want a restaurant recommendation, use an app. But for a diagnosis of a medical condition, nothing replaces a doctor."
As someone who has just been treated for a melanoma that, for all intents and purposes looked like an entirely harmless mole (i.e. it displayed none of the regular distinctive features of a melanoma), I am horrified that these apps are allowed.
Go and see a doctor people.
Until then...geek on!
The Ed.
Medical apps are on the rise and some of them are causing serious concerns amongst the medical community including those that claim to diagnose your dodgy looking moles. These apps compare self-taken pictures of your mole with a database of known nasty melanomas and cancers to determine whether yours is potentially dangerous, or not. All very well and good, if they get it right, but the don't. A new study published on the JAMA Dermatology website showed that they don't even get it right often.
Of the four apps tested, three of them "misclassified 30% or more of melanomas as benign," which means that they diagnosed the moles as safe when they definitely were not safe. The study was done by members of the dermatology department at the University of Pittsburgh and who tested the apps against 60 images of classified melanomas and 128 images of benign moles. Because of the high rate of misdiagnosis, the study concluded that not only do the apps not work, but that they are in fact causing harm to those replacing medical attention with an app.
Speaking to Allure, Mona Gohara, a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine said, "This study highlights that you can miss a melanoma diagnosis and one miss is one too many because you can die from it. Caught early skin cancer can be treated." Gohara concluded, "If you want a restaurant recommendation, use an app. But for a diagnosis of a medical condition, nothing replaces a doctor."
As someone who has just been treated for a melanoma that, for all intents and purposes looked like an entirely harmless mole (i.e. it displayed none of the regular distinctive features of a melanoma), I am horrified that these apps are allowed.
Go and see a doctor people.
Until then...geek on!
The Ed.
