Skin NTDs, an app created by the WHO to detect skin diseases

At the end of April the results were published of the first use of the application Skin NTDs, a project funded by the WHO and led by the researcher Carme Carrión that seeks to contribute to controlling tropical skin diseases that particularly affect countries with low income per capita.
 

The results were published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research and they seem to show a clear advance in the implementation of digital tools, designed above all, for regions where specialities such as dermatology are not present. This application seeks to aid healthcare professionals to improve their knowledge regarding twelve tropical diseases that are currently overlooked and another twenty-four common skin diseases.
 

First steps with Skin NTD's application 

The first part of the study involved the participation of around fifty professionals carrying out field work in Ghana and Kenya. The evaluation of the application’s new features is based on artificial intelligence, a significant change in the analysis that aids the identification of the diseases using two algorithms that work based on photographs.

“Up to now the application, which in all cases has been conceived as a training tool for professionals and not as a medical diagnosis device, had a logical algorithm that used a list of signs and symptoms; with artificial intelligence it is hoped that the results allow additional information to be obtained based on each patient’s lesion,” the researcher explains.