What to know
- Skinopathy has launched a free smartphone app, GetSkinHelp, to help Ontarians assess skin conditions quickly without needing an initial doctor’s appointment.
- The tool uses AI and the ABCDE skin assessment method to analyze skin concerns and triage patients to appropriate care, cutting wait times from months or years to as little as two weeks—or even hours in urgent cases.
- Co-founded by CEO Keith Loo and plastic surgeon Dr. Colin Hong, the platform was created to address Canada’s dermatologist shortage, where around 50,000 patients share one specialist.
- Currently available in Ontario and covered by OHIP, the technology is expanding into burn and wound assessment, with plans to grow nationwide.
An app that uses both smartphone technology and artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the way skin conditions are assessed in Ontario, while simultaneously working to tackle the dermatologist shortage in Canada.
Skinopathy is a Toronto-based company that aims to speed up the process of getting skin conditions diagnosed using medical technology that’s free for anyone to use.
Using AI, as well as a smartphone camera, patients who are concerned about discolouration, rashes or other anomalies on the skin are able to use Skinopathy’s app “GetSkinHelp,’ which allows users to take their phones and scan their problem-area without needing to book an appointment with a doctor first.
Keith Loo is the CEO and co-founder of Skinopathy, the medical technology company he and his co-founder and plastic surgeon Dr. Colin Hong created in 2020, after they noticed the growing need for dermatologists and skin help.
“[Hong] had over 100,000 patients, and what he saw was that there was significant increase of his patient base coming to him during the pandemic with later and later stage skin cancer,” Loo told Now Toronto. “He thought ‘how could we assess his patients at home without them coming into the clinic?’”
A nation-wide shortage leaves the ratio of patient to doctor being 50,000 Canadian to one dermatologist, according to the Canadian Dermatology Association, which often leads to wait times ranging from months to years.
Loo says with Skinopathy’s technology, the wait time gets cut down significantly.
“What we pride ourselves in is that we have incredibly short wait times,” he said. “Most of the skin conditions that someone [gets assessed] will have [them] seen by a doctor within two weeks, which is pretty pretty fast.”
Loo explained that using GetSkinHelp allows the patient to be fast tracked and triaged to the correct doctor, based on severity.
“The fastest we’ve been able to help a patient [from app scan to seeing a doctor] was four hours.”
Through a method already used by doctors, the free-for-use app GetSkinHelp allows computer data and analysis to assess images of the patient’s skin using ABCDE – checking the condition, mark or mole to see if it’s (A)ssymetrical, has a (B)order around it, has any (C)olouration, what the (D)iameter is and whether it not it (E)volves or changes overtime.
Through this method, the patient can be informed on next-steps, telling them where and who to go to based on the severity of the condition.
Currently the technology is only approved in Ontario and is covered by OHIP.
“In Ontario is where we have our clinical network currently, and so that’s where we can get doctors, within Ontario, to come and help you,” Loo said.
As the app grows, Loo said the team behind Skinopathy hopes to bring the technology country-wide.
While Loo and Hong began the app to diagnose skin condition, they’ve also begun to work alongside the Edmonton Firefighters Burn Treatment Society at the University of Alberta Hospital, to help them assess burn severity on the ground following significant fires.
“The burn units and the firefighters approached us and said, similarly how there’s very little technology for skin cancer, there’s even less for burns,” Loo explained. “Your firefighters are usually the first people to show up, because they’re our first line of defence, however, our firefighters will tell you that they’re not trained on how to assess burn severity.”
Now, Skinopathy also helps assess burn levels for firefighters who need to decide how urgently to transport burn patients to hospital, whether that be through ambulance or helicopter.
Additionally, the Skinopathy technology will also be opening up to look into much-needed wound assessments in the province this year.
Keith says these steps toward accessibility are the ultimate goal for Skinopathy.
“Right now, what we’re just thinking about is, what can we do today and tomorrow and next year, because in five years time, hopefully we can have such an impact on the healthcare system that many things will get a lot better.”
