Following the implementation of DERM, Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust have been shortlisted for two HTN awards – Best use of AI for diagnosis, treatment and patient care & AI Solution of the Year
Overview:
In early 2024, Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust partnered with Skin Analytics to deploy AI as a Medical Device, DERM, into their post-referral service for suspected skin cancer. The innovative dermatology team leveraged DERM to address demand, drive early skin cancer diagnosis for patients and improve service sustainability.
Why?
The trust receives around 5,400 urgent suspected skin cancer (USSC) referrals annually. Limited clinical capacity and a national shortage of consultant dermatologists (1 in 4 posts unfilled) meant KRFT faced challenges meeting demand. Compounding this, their skin cancer conversion rates were below the national average.
What happened?
In early 2024, KRFT partnered with Skin Analytics to implement DERM into their USSC pathway. DERM assesses, screens and triages lesions that are suspicious for skin cancer; it does this by analysing dermoscopic images of skin lesions and classifying the most common malignant (cancerous), pre-malignant (pre-cancerous) and benign (harmless) skin lesions – in seconds, with comparable accuracy to dermatologists.
For KRFT’s dermatology team, this looks like removing patients with benign lesions from dermatology case load, reserving specialist capacity while expediting those with suspected skin cancers to their care: finding cancers, increasing capacity and reducing wait times.
Q3 discharge rate overall was 29 percent, with consistent 28-Day FDS of above 91 percent achieved throughout July – Dec 24. The average percentage of patients seen within 7 working days across Q2 & Q3 was 84.3 percent, and Q2 and Q3 also saw a face-to-face avoidance rate of 81 percent.
DERM has been implemented safely, meeting key targets including >95 percent target sensitivity for Melanoma and SCC and >90 percent for BCC, Bowen’s and AK.
Across all outcomes, the capacity gains seen from the implementation of DERM mean more specialist time to see and treat patients in greatest need – safely speeding up access to critical diagnosis and making the best use of clinician time.
Looking ahead.
Skin Analytics is on a mission to build a world where no one dies from skin cancer, and KRFT is playing a crucial part of it.
Full list of HTN AI and Data Award finalists: AI Solution of the Year