Google recently unveiled a “Dermatology Assist” tool at the company’s annual developer conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tool uses artificial intelligence to help patients identify skin, hair, and nail conditions based on the images they upload.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dermatology Assist requires not only the use of images but also that patients answer a number of questions online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It took three years to develop the tool, which was built using a dataset of 65,000 images of diagnosed illnesses and millions of pictures showing marks people were worried about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google pointed out that while the Al can detect skin conditions, it is not designed to replace medical diagnosis and treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With more than 10 billion searches for skin, hair, and nail problems on Google’s search engine, Professor Tim Underwood, head of cancer science at the University of Southampton, believes such a tool has the potential to provide more tailored treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: “The application of AI, both in cancer and in other areas of medicine, informs the conversation around what the diagnosis might be and what treatment to offer to an individual.”<\/p>\n\n\n