A manual examination of skin lesions with a dermatoscope is the current standard procedure and state of the art in dermatoscopy. This is a highly laborious process, often limited to a small selection of lesions which excludes registering the state of off-lesion skin regions.

iToBoS tackles the limitations of currently available systems, by designing a novel tool that will help practitioners during the diagnostic process. The diagnosis for a given exploration will be enhanced with all the data available for the patient, including, but not being limited to, genomics, clinical history, previous dermoscopy, etc. The result will be a cognitive assistant that integrates information from several sources to provide a personalized diagnostic for each patient.

My husband’s diagnosis with melanoma and our struggle to access effective therapy challenged what I had learnt about medical research. I have since founded a patient network, becoming avocal advocate for patient- centric drug development. Herein, I discuss some of the lessons I have learnt. 

Melanoma Patient Network Europe has a lot of experience in connecting researchers with patients, including organizing patient-led conferences. The group’s founder explains how productive interaction can be transformative to research.