Skipton firm licensed to help skin cancer detection rates

The Dermofit app trains the medical profession to accurately identify malignant and benign skin lesion and skin growths at an earlier stage.

The Edinburgh University breakthrough has been licensed to Simedics Limited, a Skipton-based company specialising in digital products and publishing for the healthcare and public sector services.

Professor Jonathan Rees, chair of dermatology at Edinburgh, said: “Thirty per cent of doctors will automatically send a patient to a hospital if they have signs of a skin growth. But the evidence is that the vast majority of people who are seen and referred do not have skin cancer or anything serious at all.”

Dermofit contains a photo library of skin lesions to help inform practitioners to diagnosis more effectively.

The app took around four years to develop, which included sourcing the extensive image library and associated diagnoses, developing the algorithms to automatically group the photos based on their colour and texture properties, and testing the product with practitioners.

The university said the deal shows business and academia working together to benefit society and the economy.