Early detection can mean a world of difference for patients diagnosed with skin cancer. In fact, those lucky enough to detect skin cancer early achieve a five-year survival rate of 99 percent. Resource or time constraints often keep people from heading to the doctor early, however, which is why two developers decided to take the world of cancer screening into their own hands and create a free, artificial intelligence-powered screening program completely online. Peter Ma, an independent developer and part of the Intel Software Innovator Program, along with co-founder Mike Borozdin, has developed an AI solution that has the power to determine and classify skin cancer types with the same level of intelligence as a dermatologist. The technology, known as Doctor Hazel, uses deep-learning neural networks to screen and classify skin cancer with 80 percent accuracy.

Entopsis: Entopsis is a Miami based startup building a device NuTec (Nanoscale Unbiased Textured Capture) utilizing artificial intelligence. NuTec is mainly focussed on cancer, autoimmune diseases. SkinVision: SkinVision is a skin cancer awareness and tracking app that allows you to understand your risk factors for skin cancer and keep track of your moles. CureMetrix: CureMetrix is developing a next-generation based medical image analysis tool for mammography. OncoraMedical: Oncora Medical is focussed on using machine learning and big data in radiation oncology. This clinical decision support software will provide aid to oncologists based on the results of sophisticated data analytics.

"The long-term goal and true potential of AI is to replicate the complexity of human thinking at the macro level, and then surpass it to solve complex problems--problems both well-documented and currently unimaginable in nature."1 Skin cancer has reached epidemic proportions in much of the world. A simple test is needed to perform initial screening on a wide scale to encourage individuals to seek treatment when necessary. Doctor Hazel, a skin cancer screening service powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that operates in real time, relies on an extensive library of images to distinguish between skin cancer and benign lesions, making it easier for people to seek professional medical advice. Hackathons have proven to be a successful way to channel energy and technical expertise into solving very specific problems and generating bright, new ideas for applied technology.

Engineers participating in a hackathon last weekend demonstrated an artificial intelligence that they say could someday detect cancerous moles, TechCrunch reports. Although the program is currently in its infancy, the team hopes that enough user submissions could allow Doctor Hazel to predict skin cancer with at least 90 percent accuracy. After one day and thousands of image downloads, the AI is identifying cancer at an 85 percent success rate, the team said during a presentation at TechCrunch Disrupt's San Francisco 2017 hackathon. However, the team has launched a beta and is inviting users to submit their own photos to improve Doctor Hazel's performance. "There's a huge problem in getting AI data for medicine … no one wants to share," Mike Borozdin, developer of Doctor Hazel, told TechCrunch.