What is the Importance of Skin Cancer Screening?
Skin cancer is one of the most commonly acquired cancers in the world. One in five Americans develops skin cancer in their lifetime.[1] Early identification and timely treatment are crucial for survival [2]. Early identification is done via skin cancer screening. It is traditionally performed through,
- Skin self-examination
- Screening by a dermatologist
However, laypeople and even general practitioners (GPs) performing skin examination sometimes lack accuracy. But people are often reluctant to reach a dermatologist solely for skin cancer screening.
Access Free Skin Cancer Screening Without Medical Insurance
Thanks to Al, there are now mobile health (mHealth) apps that assist with skin cancer screening. They offer a quick, zero costly and 24×7 available service accessible at your finger tips. Although it sounds superior to visiting a dermatologist, a group of researches wanted to know the exact truth.
Susanne Gaube and colleagues conducted a study to understand consumer preferences for skin cancer screening via AI apps vs Dermatologists. Study involved two forced- choice conjoint experiment with 1591 participants for the main study and 308 participants for the replication study. The recruitment ensured a gender, age, ethnicity and health insurance wise representative sample. In both samples, more than half of the participants had a university degree, a minority did not have a health insurance, and the majority had no previous history of skin cancer or skin cancer examination. After receiving adequate information on skin cancer prevalence and screening methods, participants had to answer to a scenario where they had to choose the best screening method they would go for considering the provided,
- Cost of the screening
- Expertise of the provider
- Provider’s privacy policy
- Level of details given with the screening result
The replication study was done with randomizing providers and their attributes to migrate the potential order effects.
Study Insights: AI Apps vs Dermatologists
The key findings of the study are as follows,
- Dermatologists were selected more often than mHealth apps in both the main and the replication studies, indicating a minimal impact from the presentation order.
- Cost, expertise, and privacy policy significantly influenced the decision, while the details given in the results did not affect the choice.
- There was no much difference in the decision-making based on age, gender or ethnicity, but individuals with high medical mistrust preferred mHealth apps over dermatologists.
- Even those who didn’t select dermatologists rated them highly for trust, accuracy and quality.
- Responders were willing to wait till the next dermatologist appointment for the results, before switching to mHealth apps.
- Responders were more likely to seek a second opinion if mHealth apps generated a concerning result. [3]
“mHealth Apps as a Complement, Not a Replacement for Dermatologists in Skin Cancer Screening ”
It is clear that people remain reluctant to completely trust an algorithm-based app over human decisions. This highlights the importance of implementing “human-algorithm hybrid” model for mHealth apps and informing users that these products only aid in skin self-examination, so positive results should to be referred to a dermatologist for further review.
People tend to go for cost-effective screening options. So it is wise to provide mHealth apps either free or at a nominal cost. To increase the user acceptance, providers should enhance app accuracy. Obtaining CE certification or FDA approval will build the consumer trust. Since privacy is a sensitive concern, providers must enforce data protection and transparency guidelines.
While mHealth app developers emphasize the assistant these apps can offer for skin self-examination, they should also support users to overcoming the reluctance to seek professional medical advice when needed.
The app providers can highlight the benefits of using mHealth apps in terms of immediate results which will expedite the treatment planning. To add more to it, establishing connectivity between mHealth apps and medical professionals, with automatically giving follow-up dates for concerning findings, could boost user acceptance to sky high.
In summary, factors like cost, privacy policy, expertise and medical mistrust affects the choice between Al-enabled mHealth apps and dermatologists for skin cancer screening. Developers should emphasize the importance of mHealth apps as an assistance in skin self- examination , integrating human-algorithm hybrid models, and ensuring connectivity to professional follow up. Providing low cost, quick results, taking care of data protection will come in handy when approaching the consumers. It is clear that, skin cancer screening apps have a huge role in addressing healthcare gaps in underserved regions, quick diagnosis which will aid in a faster initiating management. thus developers and health care providers should continue advancing the mHealth apps for the greater good.
References
- Skincancer|Skincancertypes.AmericanCancerSociety. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/skin-cancer.html
- StaOPS,StaOPS.What’sthediOerencebetweenmelanomaandnon-melanoma skin cancer? – Premier Surgical. Premier Surgical – Premier Surgical. January 2022. https://www.premiersurgical.com/01/whats-the-diOerence-between- melanoma-and-non-melanoma-skin-cancer/
- GaubeS,BieblI,EngelmannMKM,KleineAK,LermerE.Comparingpreferences for skin cancer screening: AI-enabled app vs dermatologist. Social Science & Medicine. 2024;349:116871. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116871
- Escalé-BesaA, Fuster-CasanovasA, BörveA, YélamosO, Fustà-NovellX, Esquius Rafat M, Marin-Gomez F, Vidal-Alaball J. Using Artificial Intelligence as a Diagnostic Decision Support Tool in Skin Disease: Protocol for an Observational Prospective Cohort Study. JMIR Res Protoc. 2022;11(8):e37531. doi:10.2196/37531. Available at: https://www.researchprotocols.org/2022/8/e37531.
