During his rotations as a medical student at McGill University, Roy Khalaf met a patient whose metastatic melanoma had spread to his brain and other areas of his body. Coming to terms with his unfortunate fate, the patient – a father of three children under five – regretted he hadn’t been able to detect the cancer earlier, when treatment might have been more effective.
His story stayed with Khalaf, who is in his final year of med school at McGill. “It made me think there should be an app for the general public to identify the presenting signs of melanoma and be able to monitor their moles with the help of a physician,” he said. The aspiring doctor went on to develop Melanoscope, a web-based app that helps monitor the growth of moles that appear on the skin.
Khalaf worked for eight months with a group of developers to come up with the user-friendly, bilingual app which is free on the Apple app store, and will be available soon on Google Play.
Once logged on, the app asks the user for skin type, age and sex. It exhibits a human body according to the sex of the user. The user then chooses the area of the body where a suspicious mole exists. Clicking on the spot prompts the user to take a photo of the mole. The app will then remind the user every month or two to take another photo of the mole for comparison.
“I put an educational guide in the app noting the six features that indicate the risk of a melanoma,” Khalaf explained. “For example, changes that show the mole is evolving more than 0.15 centimeters since the initial measurement, a change in colour and shape. Whenever you feel it’s necessary, visit your physician who can provide a diagnosis. This is really for patient education. It’s not an app that detects cancer for you, it’s an app that helps raise your suspicion.”
According to Khalaf, melanoma is becoming more prevalent, especially in youth. “If not detected early there is a very high chance of metastasis, and it can spread towards other areas of your body lowering your chances of survival. That’s why we always advocate sunscreen for protection. We also advocate for this sort of self skin exam.”
Melanoma is most frequently found on sun-exposed areas such as the arms, legs and face.
So far, the Melanoscope has had 50-plus downloads, many of them from users in Sweden. Khalaf will meet with Melanoma Canada to discuss the possibility of dermatologists recommending the app. “I do plan regular updates in the future and I also plan on making it available in other languages, for example Spanish and Greek.”
More info: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/melanoscope/id6738163464