Table 3.
Characteristics of studies that reported accuracy of smartphone apps verified by expert recommendations for further investigation or intervention
| Study, country | Apps | No of patients, lesions | Inclusion criteria | Exclusion criteria | Data collection | Choice of lesions, image acquisition | Reference standard, target condition | No of exclusions (%) | No of cancers/total analysed, % (final diagnoses) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chung (2018),30 Netherlands | SkinVision (version NR) | 125, 199 | Visitors of the National Skin Cancer Day (up to 2 lesions selected for assessment by attendees) | NR | Prospective | Patient, clinician | Expert assessment (appears to be face to face), malignant or premalignant v benign | Unevaluable images 90 (45%)* | 9/109, 8.3% (final diagnoses NR; expert diagnoses: 6 BCC, 1 BD, 1 AK, 1 angioma plus 54 BN, 7 atypical BN, 21 SK, 8 SL, 7 DF, 3 other BN) |
| Nabil (2017),29 Netherlands | SkinVision (version NR) | NR, 151 | New patients referred by GP to the pigmented lesion clinic (up to 2 lesions selected for assessment by attendees) | NR | Prospective | Patient, clinician | Expert assessment in face to face consultation, histopathology warranted v no histopathology | No unevaluable images reported | 8/151, 5.3% (final diagnoses NR; expert diagnoses obtained from author: 5 MM, 3 BCC, 3 AK, 3 DF, 17 DN, 86 BN, 3 angioma, 4 SL, 2 blue naevus, 1 SN, 1 giant comedo) |
| Ngoo (2018),24 Australia | SkinVision (version NR), SpotMole, Dr Mole | 30, 57 | Surgical list patients with pigmented lesions scheduled for excision, participants from naevus morphology study | Lesions on non-typical skin surfaces, poor image quality, keratinocyte lesions | Prospective | Clinician, clinician | Expert assessment of dermoscopic and clinical images, lesion warrants in-person consultation v benign | Poor quality images excluded a priori 4/38 (11%), plus 3 participants with ineligible lesions and 1 with no excision; unevaluable images: SkinVision iOS 8 (14%), SkinVision Android 10 (18%)† | 42/57, 73.7% (expert diagnoses NR; histology reported 1 MiS) |
AK=actinic keratosis; BCC=basal cell carcinoma; BD=Bowens disease; BN=benign naevi; DF=dermatofibroma; DN=dysplastic naevi; GP=general practitioner; MiS=melanoma in situ; MM=malignant “invasive” melanoma; NR=not reported; SK=seborrhoeic keratosis; SL=solar lentigo; SN=Spitz naevi.
*
Up to five attempts for each lesion.
†
Up to 10 attempts for each lesion.