New AI technology can identify some skin cancers without a biopsy

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A skin cancer clinic in Far North Queensland is trialling the use of a new machine that uses artificial intelligence to help identify cancerous cells, without the need for a biopsy. It's hoped the emerging technology will reduce the number of skin cancer deaths in Australia by improving detection and making people more comfortable to get checked.

Transcript

00:00Giving patients a glimpse into the future.

00:05Those are your cells under your skin.

00:07What we have now is looking at the cells,

00:09so that's going to change the way we practice skin cancer medicine in a big way.

00:14A Cairns clinic has imported a machine from France

00:17that uses low-powered lasers and AI to scan skin lesions.

00:22The technology helps identify whether they're cancerous

00:25with no need for a scalpel.

00:27Which means that there's no needles, there's no blood, there's no scarring.

00:30So you can see the cells in real time.

00:32We're not waiting for seven days or ten days

00:35to be sent to a pathology lab for the results to come back.

00:38The Melanoma Institute of Australia is taking part in international research,

00:43looking at how effective non-invasive equipment and artificial intelligence

00:47are in detecting skin cancer.

00:50One of the things that we want is not only to find the nasty one quicker,

00:54but we want also to reduce the amount of unnecessary biopsy.

00:59Australia has one of the highest skin cancer rates in the world.

01:02It's hoped non-invasive options will convince patients with needle phobias to visit a clinic.

01:08It is a significant proportion of people that are white skin checks.

01:12I have white skin checks because I'm scared of needles.

01:15The use of AI diagnostic equipment for skin cancers isn't covered by Medicare.

01:21The Melanoma Institute is researching the benefits and costs,

01:25but it's expected to take about five years before it's subsidised for patients.

01:31I think we'll have a lot of government looking and maybe copying what we're putting in place.

01:36I think we can only find the most dangerous positions in the world.

01:47I think we need to pick one more and a few more issues.

01:50The Melanoma Institute of Australia is called A Melanoma Institute of Australia,

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