Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst prognoses, with a five-year survival rate of 9 percent, because of the lack of telltale symptoms or non-invasive screening tools to catch a tumor before it spreads.
University of Washington researchers have developed the BiliScreen app, which allow people to easily screen a susspected pancreatic cancer and other diseases – by snapping a smartphone selfie. BiliScreen uses a smartphone camera, computer vision algorithms and machine learning tools to detect increased bilirubin levels in a person’s sclera, or the white part of the eye.
Indeed, one of the earliest symptoms of pancreatic cancer, as well as other diseases, is jaundice, a yellow discoloration of the skin and eyes caused by a buildup of bilirubin in the blood. So the ability to detect signs of jaundice when bilirubin levels are minimally elevated – but before they’re visible to the naked eye – could enable an entirely new screening program for at-risk individuals.
In an initial clinical study of 70 people, the BiliScreen app correctly identified cases of concern 89.7% of the time, compared to the blood test currently used.
In contrast with others methods of screening, BiliScreen does not require access to a health care professional.
This app is a very interesting illustration of digital preventing tools, easy-to-use, and non-invasive, that could be efficient to determine whether someone ought to consult a doctor for further testing.
This new app was presented on the 13 of September at Ubicomp 2017, the Association for Computing Machinery’s International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing.
Sources:
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170828140716.htm