Phone App Developing for Early Melanoma Detection

A mobile phone app allowing individuals to take a picture of a mole, lesion or birthmark on their bodies; send the image to Health Discovery; and immediately receive back on their mobile phone a risk assessment for melanoma and other skin cancers is nearing completion.

This first-ever melanoma/skin cancer mobile phone app using Health Discovery's patented and Support Vector Machine (SVM) technology will employ sophisticated image analysis techniques using protected algorithms for evaluating moles, lesions and birthmarks. Health Discovery has applied for further patent protection for this latest application of its technology.

Today, more than 3 billion people, or 47 percent of the world's population, use mobile phones, according to a recent report. By 2014, mobile phone penetration as a percentage of population is expected to reach 53 percent, or 3.5 billion people.

"We are extremely excited to be nearing completion of what we believe to be the world's first SVM-based image analysis mobile phone app for assessing the risk for melanoma and other skin cancers from pictures taken of skin lesions such as moles in the privacy of one's home," Stephen D. Barnhill, chairman and CEO of Health Discovery, said in a statement. "When released, our melanoma/skin cancer risk assessment app could become a commonly used tool for identifying skin cancers such as melanoma in an affordable, objective and fast manner that can be used world-wide wherever mobile phones with cameras are available."

Health Discovery intends to create a worldwide network of partners that includes physicians who perform skin biopsies and clinical pathology laboratories that analyze skin biopsies. To assure the privacy of their results, customers using Health Discovery's melanoma/skin cancer risk assessment app may submit their image anonymously.