Most algorithms designed to help people identify skin problems don’t let experts see the datasets they were developed with and don’t share information on the skin tone or ethnicity of the patients in those datasets, according to a new review. These types of tools use pictures of skin conditions to teach a system to recognize those same conditions in new images. Of the studies included, 56 claimed to identify those conditions, but only 36 of those met the gold standard. The review included an algorithm from Google, which developed a tool designed to help people identify skin conditions. The limitations don’t mean most dermatology algorithms are useless, wrote Philipp Tschandl, a researcher at the Medical University of Vienna, wrote in an accompanying editorial.

Source: The Nation September 23, 2021 16:52 UTC