Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust launches a post-referral service for suspected skin cancer using DERM, artificial intelligence as a medical device.
High demand for dermatology services is common across NHS organisations in England with skin cancer referrals sky-rocketing. Last year, the NHS saw 650,000 referrals for suspected skin cancer and this continues to grow by 11% year on year. Fortunately, most urgent suspected skin cancer (USSC) referrals are likely to be benign, but this means scarce dermatology resources is being used to see these patients while those who really do need to be seen or receive treatment, continue to wait – and this was the case for the dermatology department at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.
In Buckinghamshire, the Trust has seen a 300% increase in USSC referrals since 2010 and the Skin Cancer Centre in Amersham Hospital, part of Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, sees between 45-50 patients with skin cancer referrals per day.
By leveraging our AI as a medical device, DERM, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust aims to reduce the number of face-to-face appointments required for patients with benign skin lesions and improve access treatment for patients with skin cancer.
How?
All patients referred for suspected skin cancer will be invited to an imaging clinic. At the clinic, images of the patient’s mole or skin lesion are taken by the Trust’s medical photography team. These images are uploaded to the Skin Analytics custom-built teledermatology platform where DERM – the only UKCA Class IIa AI as a Medical Device for dermatology – will assess and classify in seconds.
DERM is trained to classify 11 different lesion types including the most common malignant, pre-malignant, and benign skin lesions. Depending on the results, there are two possible outcomes:
- Patients with suspected benign lesions have their results communicated to them and are discharged by the Trust.
- For patients with suspected malignant or premalignant lesions, the case is immediately available for a Trust Dermatologist review.
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust shared their own news article on our partnership, stating:
‘The efficiency savings the technology has made has also allowed the Skin Centre team to introduce a new ‘see and treat’ service for some patients who previously may have faced long wait times, enabling them to receive a diagnosis and treatment in a single visit.’
Dr 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.’
Big thanks to the team at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, their commitment and drive for better patient outcomes is unquestionable. We’re motivated to see the change our AI driven pathway can bring for patients in the region.