This article covers a case study on tackling skin cancer with AI and Deep Learning in non-invasive ways. Imagine a pen that you put against your skin, and it gives you information about your health. Science fiction? No. That’s a reality. Peltarion is making that happen for SciBase.
This article was originally published by Peltarion.
Let’s start from the beginning so that you can understand the amazing things SciBase are working on.
10% of the world’s population. That is the number of human beings who have atopic dermatitis, commonly known as atopic eczema. It is a chronic condition, closely linked to asthma, allergies and hay fever, that causes suffering and severely limits the quality of life of those afflicted.
About SciBase
Their headquarters is located in a modern part of Stockholm, Sweden. SciBase was founded just before the turn of the millennium, on the back of 20 years of research from world renowned academic hospital Karolinska Institutet.
You can of course read more about them here
Long experience from non invasive skin cancer detection
Today SciBase provides healthcare practitioners all around the world with a device called Nevisense for accurate detection of malignant melanoma (skin cancer).
The SciBase method is based on a technology called Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), which uses the electrical properties of human tissue to categorize cellular structures and thereby detect anomalies.
The Next Big Step; Atopic Dermatitis and Eczema
In Sweden, about 20% of all children are born with atopic dermatitis. These numbers have tripled over the last three decades in the developed world, as a result of lifestyle changes and what chemicals we are exposed to throughout our lives.
Atopic eczema is a chronic condition, closely linked to asthma, allergies, and hay fever, that causes suffering and severely limits the quality of life of those afflicted.
The Skin Barrier; Our Real Protection Shield
What is it exactly? You can think of the skin barrier like a protective brick wall, where the cells are the bricks, and the Stratum corneum lipid matrix is the mortar in between the bricks. The barrier functions as a crucial protective barrier from environmental irritants and harmful microbes. At the same time, it holds in the moisture, preventing your skin from drying out.
When you suffer from atopic dermatitis, your skin barrier doesn’t function properly, which can allow viruses, toxins and bacteria to enter your body.
Measuring the Barrier to Detect Atopic Dermatitis
SciBase have conducted extensive research together with Prof. Dr. Cezmi Akdis, MD from University Zurich, SIAF in Davos. By utilizing AI and Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), they have been able to develop methods for analyzing the state of the skin barrier.
Helping Newborn Babies to Healthier Lives
By detecting which children that have a compromised skin barrier at birth, there is a potential to identify those with a higher risk of developing eczema, allergies, or asthma. Then those children could be managed differently. Through preventive healthcare the risk could be reduced of children developing these conditions that severely affect their lives — and also become a huge burden to the healthcare system.
A Life Science Company’s Perspective on AI
“The neural net uses the data to help us find the useful answers that we are looking for.”
The Peltarion Platform Allows Us to Focus on Solving Problems. Faster.
The platform takes care of a lot of the mechanics of AI. It takes away a lot of the tricky stuff and just handles it automatically. It enables us to try different datasets, and experiment faster.
