We all turned to Google if something with our body doesn’t look or feel right. Well, Google now wants to help us to get more accurate answers and therefore it has now developed Derm Assist, a new web-based app that can identify skin conditions from a photo. This will be an AI-driven tool that could be used to detect health conditions.
With this new tool, people can use their phone’s camera to take three pictures of the problem area, for example, a rash on their arm. They will then have to answer a series of questions about their skin type and other symptoms.
The tool then gives a list of possible conditions that the person is suffering from and will look for a match in the database of 288 skin conditions that it is trained to recognise. Also, it should be remembered that the tool is not intended to diagnose the problem.
In past, apps like SkinVision, Miiskin have worked similarly. But in order to set itself apart, Google intentionally made this as a web app, so that anyone with a phone that has a browser can use it. Apart from this, Google also has a large library of skin conditions which can surely give it an edge over others.
Also, for each matching condition, the tool will show dermatologist-reviewed information and answers to commonly asked questions, along with similar matching images from the web.
In order to make information more reliable and accurate, Google even conducted research on patients from five countries and used de-identified data from nine countries. It is also planning to expand the research with the help of Apollo Hospitals and Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia.