Every child gets a vision and hearing check in school on a regular basis. Dr. Moshe Fried, an Israeli plastic surgeon, believes an annual skin check is necessary as well, starting in the teens.
This is why he agreed to be the medical consultant for Emerald Medical Applications’ DermaCompare, a free smartphone app that can detect changes in marks and moles over time. The app alerts the user to changes that ought to be screened for cancer.
“The skin is the biggest organ in the body,” said Fried. “The need for this comparative system came from the concept that as dermatologists and plastic surgeons we have to check everyone throughout life to look for changes in moles—the medical term is ‘nevi’—for signs of skin cancer. This is quite difficult to do. We think that together with this application we can accomplish this goal.”
