The advancement of AI is moving eczema care towards becoming simpler and smarter using regular devices.
United States: People with eczema might now be able to monitor their condition more easily, thanks to a new AI that analyzes skin images taken on smartphones to assess severity.
The AI system had a good ability to detect eczema in the photos sent in by patients with their smartphones, according to the researchers in the journal Allergy on May 19, as reported by HealthDay.
Closing the Gap in Self-Evaluation
“Many patients with eczema struggle to evaluate their disease severity on their own,” senior researcher Dr. Takeya Adachi, an assistant professor of dermatology at Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, said in a news release.
“Our AI model allows for objective, real-time tracking using just a smartphone, empowering patients and potentially improving disease management,” he added.
Atopic dermatitis, another word for eczema, comes and goes, requiring ongoing care and changes in treatment, researchers noted.
Still, patients may feel uncomfortable or lose sleep, but the symptoms they report may not reflect the appearance of their eczema, researchers noted.
How It Works
Scientists collected user data from the Japanese eczema app called Atopiyo. Since 2018, users on HealthTap have contributed more than 57,000 photos of symptoms and left personal reviews.
The team programmed the AI so that it can assess eczema severity by considering where it is found, the size of the rash, and how aggravated it has become through redness, swelling, or scratching.
After being trained on 880 images with people’s reported itch scores, AI was put to the test on 220 new images.
AI identified 98% of body areas and 100% of eczema, and its findings were in line with the ratings given by professional dermatologists and allergists, noted the experts.
Implications for the Future of Dermatology
The scientists will now continue to refine the AI by feeding it more data about different ages and skin colors and by adding more features from other methods used to evaluate eczema, as reported by HealthDay.
“The AI model developed in this study has the potential to help patients with [eczema] objectively assess their skin condition, facilitating timely and appropriate treatment,” researchers concluded in their paper. “This study lays the groundwork for future advancements in AI-driven dermatological assessments, enhancing patient care and clinical research.”