Skin cancer is nothing to fool with, but it’s not always easy to check whether you have it. A new health tech device could solve that problem.
Skin cancer is serious business. Melanoma kills more than 7,000 people in the U.S. every year. If you have a suspicious mole, you should get it checked by a healthcare professional, but even in the best of times, it can be hard to get an appointment with a dermatologist. Thanks to the pandemic, you may have to wait many months to see a doctor. A company has created a sticker that lets the skin check come to you. Patients apply the sticker to a suspicious spot then peel it off and place it on a collection strip that gets mailed to a lab. The company uses genetic analysis to check for cancer cells, which they claim is more effective than a traditional biopsy at detecting early-stage cancer. This new approach could give patients peace of mind, and might even free up some dermatologist schedules so they can focus on patients who are more likely to have cancer.