18-year-old Siddharth Mandala's app gives you an early check on malignant melanoma, finds Ranjana Maria
Remember Hyderabad-based Siddharth Mandala who devised the intriguing anti-rape footwear? This time he's back with something even more interesting up his sleeve – a software that detects skin cancer in its early stages.
Developed by Mandala and his friend Praneet Shah in three months, the idea for it dawned on them just before they were invited to the Ashoka Youth Venture programme, an international organization promoting social entrepreneurship, conducted in July this year.
The 18-year-olds worked on the software under the guidance of Dr AS Kumar, a dermatologist with Apollo Hospital in Hyderabad. Mandala breaks down the technicalities of his new venture. He says, "The program detects early stages of malignant melanoma, a type of skin cancer. Using your phone camera, a live picture feed of your skin is transmitted onto your computer, after which the software uses image recognition to identify differences in colour and patterns, comparing normal skin to that which is infected". But to get a sense of the software's practical use in real time, one may need to have fast bandwidth, Internet and Bluetooth. While this may be a positive step to self-diagnosis, Mandala stresses on how it's no replacement for a traditional medical check-up. "The software has no name yet, but we are working on it and hope to make it freely available for people to use. It has even cleared an initial testing phase, but there is work that needs to be done," expresses Mandala.
The sheer curiosity of image recognition and its potential drew the duo towards research. "The two-day Ashoka Youth Venture workshop gave our research the practical push it needed. The programme was followed by a summer internship under Dr Kumar, who helped us a great deal with building the machine," says Mandala. So far, the software has been tested with hundreds of medical record pictures and the results have proved to be positive. But the race to the finish line is not yet over. Mandala adds, "Training the software now with live examples is our biggest challenge. Malignant melanoma shows itself on the skin in different ways and the software must learn to identify the disease irrespective of the factors influencing it. With the software, many could benefit, as the early diagnosis will hopefully lead to early treatment, hence saving lives," says Mandala. Dr. Adwaita Gore, an oncologist from Zen hospital in Mumbai speaks positively about the initiative, but at the same time imparts advice saying, "Detecting skin cancer on your own is often difficult, and this software will definitely help speed up diagnosis, making it a positive move. But the project must undergo medical testing for its sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value towards the disease before being made available to the masses."
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