New medical imaging equipment provides early detection of skin cancer
 28 June 2004

Could You Have Skin Cancer? Do you know if you have skin cancer or if you have skin lesions that could develop into skin cancer? Early detection of these ticking time bombs enhances survival.
A new and unrivalled medical system available now in Australia, and soon to be available in the US, is delivering a new dimension in skin cancer screening and proactive patient care.

MicroDERM medical imaging equipment and Expert System multi-application software is capable of scanning, recording, comparing, and analysing skin lesions to aid the clinical diagnosis of skin cancer. Used as part of an on-going patient management system it can be used initially to detect skin cancer and subsequently to monitor subtle adverse changes in skin lesions.

Thus, MicroDERM and Expert System deliver a complete point-of-care patient management system for doctors and their patients, but this is just the tip of this iceberg.

The Expert System software is based on the three-year Diagnostic and Neural Analysis of Skin Cancer (DANAOS) study that was conducted collaboratively by nine European countries between July 1997 and December 2000. The study proved the Expert System achieved the same level of performance as was achieved, on average, by specialist Dermatologists.

Results of the DANAOS study were published in the respected British Journal of Dermatology (ref BJD 2003; 149: 801-809).

The clinical data collected during the DANAOS study forms the foundation of the Expert System. Visiomed Group Ltd located in Perth, Western Australia owns the exclusive worldwide rights to this data. This means Visiomed's Expert System is unrivalled by any comparative system.

The Expert System applies the widely accepted ABCD rule when comparing skin lesions against the database. This means the software applies the same four-pronged analysis as would be applied by a specialist Dermatologist , but these parameters are further broken down into more than 40 variables that are interrogated by the Expert System.

Remarkably, the Expert System is capable of achieving even better results as it learns while it works. Over time the expanding database will lead to increased levels of accuracy, after the results have been centrally updated by Visiomed Group at its German research facilities.

Equal accessibility to quality healthcare is a concern for all governments. In remote areas where specialists are few and far between, the system could facilitate a first opinion to be confirmed/seconded via e-health links.

Patients have increasing expectations of their medical practitioners. The Expert System facilitates proactive patient care via a patient management system. Skin lesions (once on record within the patient management system) can be monitored via periodic check-ups to detect adverse change. In this way, the system acts as an early warning or delivers peace of mind to patients.

Doctors may also achieve time-saving benefits by training clinic nurses to operate the system under supervision.

Both microDERM and Expert System are TGA approved in Australia. The FDA recently approved the microDERM equipment and patient management system, opening the door to initial sales of MicroDERM in the US. Visiomed plans a subsequent FDA application for the Expert System this year. Approval would result in a 'world first'.

The owner of the MicroDERM Expert System equipment, patents, and intellectual property, Visiomed, is presently seeking high profile partners to assist with their 'world first' US roll-out of the MicroDERM Expert System.

MicroDERM and Expert System are both platform technologies. In the future microDERM equipment can be adapted for multiple applications, eg; changing the light could enable scanning for eye disease, and a software upgrade could aid diagnostics.

Expert System software is currently being developed for additional applications.

Visiomed (www.visiomed.com.au) is a medical devices group with worldwide rights in the medical field to intellectual property covering the use of proprietary computer based expert systems for the imaging, diagnosis and management of diseases and other conditions.

Visiomed holds an exclusive distributorship in Australia for Siemens Medical Equipment.

The company also owns the worldwide rights to the Funhaler (www.funhaler.com), a paediatric incentive spacer used to deliver aerosol-based asthma drugs. The Funhaler is covered by issued and pending patents. The Funhaler is expected to be launched into major international markets in the first half of 2005.

For further information, please contact Visiomed's Dr Sassine on (08) 9321 2712 (international 618 9321 2712), or mobile 0412 533 966. Email: [email protected]