The NHS Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust is working with healthtech company, Skin Analytics, to ensure patients with suspected skin cancers receive swifter diagnosis and treatment.

By implementing Skin Analytics’ artificial intelligence (AI) device, DERM, in its Skin Centre at Amersham Hospital, the Trust aims to reduce the number of appointments patients with non-cancerous skin lesions need to attend.

This allows more time for dermatologists and plastic surgeons to see patients with skin cancer more quickly.

Skin cancer referrals in the NHS have sky-rocketed; last year the NHS saw 650,000 referrals for suspected skin cancer and this is growing by 11 per cent year on year. 

High demand for dermatology services is common across NHS organisations in England. In Buckinghamshire the Trust has seen a 300 per cent increase in referrals since 2010. The Skin Centre in Amersham currently sees between 45 to 50 patients with skin cancer referrals per day.

All patients referred by their GP with suspected skin cancer are invited to an imaging clinic where they have photos of their mole or skin lesion taken by the Trust’s medical photography team. All eligible patients then have their photos uploaded to the Skin Analytics platform where the DERM AI system assesses and classifies each image identifying which are cancerous and which are non-cancerous. This allows the team to triage skin cancer referrals more efficiently so that only those who need to be seen by a clinician go on to do so.

Ryan Kerstein, consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon for the Trust said: “The year on year increases in suspected skin cancer referrals was putting pressure on dermatology and plastic surgery services to maintain the level of care we wish to provide for our patients. 

"We therefore needed to think differently and look at how we could streamline our services to meet the rise in demand. The partnership with Skin Analytics provided us with an opportunity to do this and absolutely demonstrates our commitment to adopting effective, leading healthcare innovation.”