Artificial Intelligence Skin Cancer Consortium

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in Scotland, and melanoma – which represents around 10% of skin cancers – is the deadliest cancer among young adults.

The diagnosis and care of skin cancer patients represents half of the workload of Scotland’s dermatology specialists and, with the incidence of skin cancer increasing at the rate of 5% per year, the demand for hospital dermatology appointments is outstripping capacity.

The AI Skin Cancer Consortium aims to: 

• Combine expertise from across Scotland already exploring various aspects of bringing AI into healthcare to progress innovation at scale
• NHS Scotland will define whole-pathway strategy, combining cutting-edge AI systems with a service provided by health care professionals to promote rapid diagnosis of skin cancer
• Link with academia and industry to promote accelerated research and thorough evaluation of digital solutions 
• Enable development of a national database of images to underpin AI training and testing

And the AI Skin Cancer Consortium follows these core values:

• Improve quality of care for patients 
• Form part of an integrated pathway of care
• Function within NHS Scotland, free at point of care 
• Offer an improved patient journey, and create operational efficiencies
• Adhere to the core principles of realistic medicine
• Be thoroughly evaluated with appropriate governance before routine clinical adoption

We are working with wider industry to identify storage in a uniform manner across Scotland. We have also set up a Clinical Research Group with representation from all Scottish health boards to co-ordinate image validation.