Skin cancer in New Zealand is a major concern.
It is New Zealand's most common cancer, with over 350 Kiwis dying every single year from melanoma.
Any developments in the medical space that can help to reduce this figure is very exciting - and there's some new Kiwi-developed artificial intelligence (AI) that will soon be used to screen thousands of patients in the early stages of melanoma.
New research found that technology can indeed diagnose almost as accurately as a doctor and in a partnership between MoleMap and cancer researchers at Melbourne's Monash University, that research has been applied.
MoleMaps medical director Dr Franz Strydom spoke with summer breakfast host Lloyd Burr on Rāpare Thursday morning, sharing insight into this new AI that can diagnose early stages of melanoma.
"A specialised camera is held against the skin, it sees the lesion and it tells you what the chances of this being melanoma, skin cancer, are," Strydom said.
"We can use a nurse with limited training and she'll be able to make a diagnosis as accurately as a dermatologist would by using this AI.
"A diagnosis as accurate as some of the best [dermatologists] in the world.
"That's where the difference comes in."
Strydom said this new AI can help with getting the expertise of diagnosis right out into the forefront of old skin tricks, even with there being a shortage in healthcare workers.
"There's only about 50, 60 dermatologists, a few hundred skin cancer doctors - GP's trained specially to do this - and they do about 80 percent of all the work and even with that, there's not enough people to see all the people who need to be seen.
"So we've made really good use of nurses."
Strydom said that while the AI will diagnose the patients themselves, nurses and doctors will still be needed.
"It is accurate, but it's only a tool.
"It's not something that's going to take over the work of doctors, nurses or dermatologists.
"What we've got is this really cool technology and we now need to find ways to apply it and there's many ways we can apply it."
Listen to the full interview between Dr Franz Strydom and Lloyd Burr above.
You can also download the full interview on the Lloyd Burr Live podcast, and listen on the go.
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