Google recently unveiled a “Dermatology Assist” tool at the company’s annual developer conference.
The tool uses artificial intelligence to help patients identify skin, hair, and nail conditions based on the images they upload.
Dermatology Assist requires not only the use of images but also that patients answer a number of questions online.
It took three years to develop the tool, which was built using a dataset of 65,000 images of diagnosed illnesses and millions of pictures showing marks people were worried about.
Google pointed out that while the Al can detect skin conditions, it is not designed to replace medical diagnosis and treatment.
With more than 10 billion searches for skin, hair, and nail problems on Google’s search engine, Professor Tim Underwood, head of cancer science at the University of Southampton, believes such a tool has the potential to provide more tailored treatments.
He said: “The application of AI, both in cancer and in other areas of medicine, informs the conversation around what the diagnosis might be and what treatment to offer to an individual.”
For more information, read the original story in BBC.