STUDIES / Review of smartphone apps
About the study
Online smartphone application ('app') stores were reviewed in July 2014 for apps related to the detection of melanoma. We only looked for apps that were aimed at general community, patient and generalist clinician users and evaluated their content and the evidence applied in their development.
39 apps were identified, with the majority available only on Apple systems. Many of the apps included one or several of the following features: providing information, education, taking and storing images of moles, reminding users to monitor skin lesions, expert review of images and risk assessment. None of the apps appeared to have been validated for diagnostic accuracy or utility using established research methods.
Despite their potential usefulness, and while clinicians may choose to use apps that provide information to educate their patients, apps for melanoma detection require further validation of their utility and safety.
Findings
A full report of the review has been published in the British Journal of Dermatology. You can access or download the paper through the following link: