Now, a mobile app to detect skin cancer

A mobile phone application, 'ClipOCam-Derma', which can assist clinicians perform fast and accurate diagnosis of skin cancers and ailments has been developed by IIT Kharagpur students. It can be used on any smartphone.

A mobile phone application which can assist clinicians perform fast and accurate diagnosis of skin cancers and ailments has been developed by IIT Kharagpur students.

The application 'ClipOCam-Derma' which can be used on any smartphone has been developed in the School of Medical Science and Technology at IIT, Kharagpur, led by research scholar Debdoot Sheet.

'Being a portable and affordable solution, it can be used by trained health care workers to reach out to elderly and patients in mobility restricted areas for health care delivery,' Sheet told PTI.

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The mobile app, which will be launched in the market after regulatory approvals, can help physicians speed up diagnosis and handle more patients within a shorter time.

The innovation has won the 'GE Edison Challenge 2013' recently in Bangalore and has been awarded an incubation prize of ₹10 lakhs.

Along with the mobile app, a clip-on device is attached to the handset which illuminates the patient's skin using a colourful flash while the phone camera takes a sequence of images.