DHAKA: Artificial intelligence can identify skin cancer in photographs with the same accuracy as trained doctors.

The Stanford University team said the findings were “incredibly exciting” and would now be tested in clinics.

Eventually, they believe using AI could revolutionize healthcare by turning anyone’s smartphone into a cancer scanner.

Cancer Research UK said it could become a useful tool for doctors, reports the BBC.

The AI was repurposed from software developed by Google that had learned to spot the difference between images of cats and dogs.

It was shown 129,450 photographs and told what type of skin condition it was looking at in each one.

It then learned to spot the hallmarks of the most common type of skin cancer: carcinoma, and the most deadly: melanoma.

Only one in 20 skin cancers are melanoma, yet the tumor accounts for three-quarters of skin cancer deaths.

The experiment, detailed in the journal Nature, then tested the AI against 21 trained skin cancer doctors.

BDST: 1740 HRS, JAN 26, 2017
RY/BD