Improved melanoma detection powered by AI

I was interested to see a recent article providing an example of using computer vision for diagnosis in the MedTech sector. In AI Medical Technology’s clinical study, a smart-phone based diagnostic tool (“Dermalyser”) was used to identify skin lesions of concern, with 21 of the 253 lesions confirmed to be melanomas. To perform the necessary image analysis, the Dermalyser uses a proprietary deep learning AI model trained on a dataset with over 100,000 labelled images of skin lesions. The results of AI Medical Technology’s study provide a valuable illustration of the value computer vision, and AI technology more generally, offers in the MedTech sector.

In our latest M&C AI Report 2023 we noted a clear increase over time in the proportion of European patent application publications in the field computer vision compared to other AI technologies, such as speech processing. As illustrated in the figure taken from the M&C AI Report 2023 (below), this increase over time has resulted in computer vision becoming the dominant AI technology in European patent application publications for 2022.

A key strand of the M&C AI Report 2023 focused on the growth of AI in the MedTech sector. Further analysis in the M&C AI Report 2023 (illustrated below) indicated that in MedTech related AI European patent application publications, the dominance of computer vision compared to other technologies is even greater than the general case. We attributed this particular finding to a focus in MedTech AI innovation on early diagnosis and intervention rather than treatment, where other AI technologies may be more applicable.

Moving forward, it will be fascinating to see what other implementations computer vision technologies will find in the MedTech sector, and whether computer vision technologies will continue to dominate AI European patent application publications.