A Toronto-based AI startup is rapidly changing how healthcare is delivered in Canada, with a first-of-its-kind app for screening for skin cancer at home and fast-tracking treatment.
At a time when many Ontarians are waiting up to six months for a dermatology referral, putting them at risk of falling through the cracks when their condition is serious, Skinopathy — launched at the height of the pandemic in 2020 by plastic surgeon Dr. Colin Hong and businessman Keith Loo — is transforming dermatological care by accurately triaging moles from simple smartphone photos taken by people at home.
The Canadian-built platform, called the GetSkinHelp app, then connects patients to appropriate healthcare services, including in-person or virtual appointments with specialists who can prescribe medications and treatment through the app, as well as facilitate quicker biopsies for urgent cases.
To advance their technology quickly with limited resources, Skinopathy is turning to cutting-edge expertise at Canadian universities, coordinated through programs by organizations such as Mitacs, a leading Canadian innovation organization funded by the Government of Ontario and Government of Canada, that helps boost homegrown innovation.
“There’s so much great technology available today, but for many reasons, medical science hasn’t kept up,” said Dr. Hong, who serves as Skinopathy chief medical officer. “Our partnership with Mitacs provides access to fresh, eager graduate students who bring new perspectives and out-of-the box thinking to the table, helping to advance this groundbreaking technology in record time.”
“Skinopathy is a powerful example of how Canadian innovation fueled by research talent from our own universities can lead to smarter, more accessible healthcare,” explained Dr. Stephen Lucas, CEO of Mitacs. “We’re proud to help accelerate made-in-Canada solutions that directly benefit patients and strengthen our health systems.”
The initial idea for a skin cancer screening app came to Dr. Hong during Ontario’s first Covid-19 lockdown when he noticed that patients arriving at his practice — hesitant to come in earlier due to the fear of Covid-19 transmission — were showing up with advanced skin lesions that turned out to be late-stage cancer. He thought there had to be a better way to help people screen their moles accurately for early detection and after brainstorming with Loo, the app was born.
The way it works is simple. Users snap a photo of what they think may be a suspicious mole on their smartphone and behind the scenes a neural network-based technology determines the difference between a benign condition and a cancerous lesion, similar to the way the ‘Re-Captcha’ website security feature distinguishes between a hydrant and a bus.
A separate advanced computer vision feature assesses the snapped image according to the ABCD rule for skin cancer, measuring asymmetry, looking for irregular borders, assessing colour and measuring diameter. The app currently discerns between eight conditions, including basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma and benign moles, with 88% accuracy.
An automated triage feature then determines the level of urgency, alerting users when they should be seen right away or whether it’s okay to take a more ‘wait-and-see’ monitoring approach, using the app to continue tracking their mole. If they don’t have a family doctor to follow up with on their own, or if the wait time for a dermatology referral is too long, they can use the app to book an appointment with a Skinopathy clinician.
“Unfortunately, when early-stage cancers are missed, it’s often too late for patients and it also places a larger burden of care on the healthcare system. Our goal is to make sure that people who need a doctor get in front of the doctor,” said Skinopathy data scientist Mahla Abdolahnejad, one of six interns recruited by Skinopathy through Mitacs.
Abdolahnejad joined the team as a PhD candidate in 2021 to lend her machine learning expertise and has since accepted a full-time position, helping to refine and train the companies AI models as data is continually collected by the platform.
For Abdolahnejad, who recently won Best Machine Learning Practitioner at the 2024 AIMed Conference in Florida on behalf of Skinopathy, the opportunity to find meaningful work in a field where her expert knowledge is truly making a difference in the lives of others is a dream come true.
“When you’ve been working in academia as long as I have, it’s not always easy to find a company that is willing to take a chance on you because even though you’re at the leading edge of your field, you lack industry experience,” she said. “I honestly believe I wouldn’t have been able to find a position like this if it hadn’t been for Mitacs.”
Life-changing for patients, doctors
To date, more than 2,300 doctors have referred over 24,000 patients to Skinopathy. A surprising benefit of the platform is a significant drop in no-show appointment rates compared to the industry average.
On the clinician side, the company’s fully digitized operating system is also increasing efficiency by pre-loading patient information into the electronic medical record and automatically generating consult notes, allowing specialists to see more patients per unit of time.
On the patient side, GetSkinHelp is proving to be life changing. Take Toronto-resident Jennifer Edey, for example, whose mother noticed a suspicious spot on her nose and used GetSkinHelp to screen for skin cancer.
“I’m not sure we would have prioritized seeing a doctor as quickly as we did without using GetSkinHelp AI,” said Edey. “It gave us the confidence to see the doctor within a week and have the lesion dealt with quickly. In a very real way, it probably saved my mom’s life.”
Recognizing the potential to drive efficiency across Canada’s healthcare system, Skinopathy is now on a mission to widen the scope of its homegrown platform, developing similar apps to help first responders correctly triage burns in the field and promptly start the correct treatment, facilitate proper wound care in retirement homes, and provide personalized anti-aging skin care and treatment of acne, eczema and rosacea and pigment disorders.
Looking ahead, Skinopathy expects to bring its innovative smart platform to other medical verticals as well, starting with family practice, where it will be used to facilitate patient triage — either from home or in the waiting room — and to automate mundane administrative work so physicians can focus on providing medical care.
“There’s so much need and opportunity and we know our system can help,” said Dr. Hong, adding that the company wouldn’t be where it is without the input of so many bright young minds like those of Mitacs interns.
“This is exactly the kind of real-world impact we see when Canadian talent is put to work on pressing challenges,” adds Dr. Lucas. “Mitacs is playing an increasingly important role in helping companies turn research into results — connecting private-sector needs with academic expertise to drive made-in Canada solutions that strengthen productivity, improve services, and build long-term resilience.”
About Mitacs
Mitacs is a not-for-profit organization that fosters growth and innovation in Canada by solving business challenges with research solutions from academic institutions. It is funded by the Government of Canada, along with the Government of Alberta, the Government of British Columbia, Research Manitoba, the Government of New Brunswick, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Nova Scotia, the Government of Ontario, Innovation PEI, the Government of Quebec, the Government of Saskatchewan and the Government of Yukon. For information about Mitacs and its programs, visit mitacs.ca/newsroom.
About Skinopathy
Skinopathy is a Canadian medical AI company that helps dermatology patients get the right treatment at the right time by arming physicians, nurses, and pharmacists with digital health tools that enable them to screen, track, and manage all skin conditions more effectively.
