{"entity":{"id":"dermoscopy-ai","kind":"technology","name":"Dermoscopy, total-body photography & AI skin analysis","aka":[],"tldr":"Magnified skin imaging and whole-body photo mapping, increasingly read by algorithms, to find melanoma early and avoid unnecessary biopsies.","summary":"Dermoscopy improves diagnostic accuracy over the naked eye; sequential total-body photography tracks change in high-risk patients. Deep-learning classifiers have matched dermatologists on benchmark images and DermaSensor (elastic scattering spectroscopy, FDA 2024) is cleared for primary care. Real-world impact depends on population, skin tone representation in training data, and workflow; no screening RCT has shown mortality benefit.","status":"established","asOf":"2026-09-07","links":[{"label":"Esteva et al., Dermatologist-level classification of skin cancer with deep neural networks (Nature 2017)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1038/nature21056"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["melanoma"],"sections":["early-detection","ai-computation"],"technologies":["radiology-ai-screening"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["breslow-thickness"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"principle":"Polarised or immersion magnification of skin structures; convolutional networks trained on labelled lesion images; spectroscopy of tissue optical properties.","strengths":["Cheap, non-invasive, repeatable","Reduces benign excisions when used well"],"limitations":["Algorithm performance drops on darker skin and rare subtypes","No proven mortality benefit for population screening"]},"route":"/technologies/dermoscopy-ai/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"acral-melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Acral melanoma","route":"/cancers/acral-melanoma/"},{"id":"basal-cell-carcinoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Basal cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/basal-cell-carcinoma/"},{"id":"bowens-disease","kind":"cancer","name":"Bowen's disease (squamous cell carcinoma in situ)","route":"/cancers/bowens-disease/"},{"id":"cutaneous-scc","kind":"cancer","name":"Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/cutaneous-scc/"},{"id":"melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Melanoma","route":"/cancers/melanoma/"},{"id":"skin-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Skin cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/skin-cancer/"},{"id":"stage-ii-melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Stage IIB and IIC melanoma","route":"/cancers/stage-ii-melanoma/"},{"id":"thyroid","kind":"cancer","name":"Thyroid cancer","route":"/cancers/thyroid/"}],"section":[{"id":"ai-computation","kind":"section","name":"AI & Computation","route":"/fronts/ai-computation/"},{"id":"early-detection","kind":"section","name":"Early Detection & Screening","route":"/fronts/early-detection/"}],"technology":[{"id":"radiology-ai-screening","kind":"technology","name":"AI in radiology","route":"/technologies/radiology-ai-screening/"},{"id":"ai-mammography-screening","kind":"technology","name":"AI-assisted mammography screening","route":"/technologies/ai-mammography-screening/"},{"id":"confocal-oct-skin-imaging","kind":"technology","name":"Confocal microscopy and optical coherence tomography for skin (VivaScope, VivoSight, deepLive)","route":"/technologies/confocal-oct-skin-imaging/"},{"id":"skin-cancer-screening","kind":"technology","name":"Skin cancer screening (visual skin examination)","route":"/technologies/skin-cancer-screening/"}],"term":[{"id":"breslow-thickness","kind":"term","name":"Breslow thickness","route":"/terms/breslow-thickness/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-ai-validation","kind":"bottleneck","name":"AI that is built but not validated or deployed","route":"/bottlenecks/b-ai-validation/"},{"id":"b-workforce","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Not enough oncologists, nurses, pathologists, physicists","route":"/bottlenecks/b-workforce/"}],"idea":[{"id":"idea-data-subgroup-performance-reporting-mandate","kind":"idea","name":"Mandatory subgroup performance reporting for cancer AI","route":"/ideas/idea-data-subgroup-performance-reporting-mandate/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-esteva-skin-cancer-deep-learning-nature-2017","kind":"paper","name":"Esteva 2017: a deep neural network classifies skin cancer at dermatologist level","route":"/key-papers/paper-esteva-skin-cancer-deep-learning-nature-2017/"}],"company":[{"id":"caliber-imaging-diagnostics","kind":"company","name":"Caliber Imaging and Diagnostics","route":"/companies/caliber-imaging-diagnostics/"},{"id":"canfield-scientific","kind":"company","name":"Canfield Scientific","route":"/companies/canfield-scientific/"},{"id":"fotofinder","kind":"company","name":"FotoFinder Systems","route":"/companies/fotofinder/"}]}}