Novel illumination system for a smartphone-attachable dermoscope

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Today, dermatologists cannot see enough suspected skin cancer patients fast enough for timely and effective screening and early diagnosis of skin cancers, the most common cancer in North America. Consequently, patients are waiting too long to access dermatologists for skin cancer diagnosis. MetaOptima has designed and developed MoleScope(TM), a low-cost illuminated magnifier (called a dermoscope) that attaches to a smartphone's camera to acquire magnified images of skin lesions. MetaOptima launched MoleScope at World Congress of Dermatology in Vancouver in June 2015. The product is registered in Canada, EU, US and Australia as a Class 1 medical device for the capture, storage and transfer of photographs of skin surfaces. Using MoleScope, patients can capture images for remote review by their dermatologist, allowing their doctor to perform fast and effective skin cancer diagnosis. The MoleScope smartphone app is currently being used to monitor skin lesions over time, for early identification of skin cancer. The aim of this project is to incorporate a new method of illumination into the MoleScope device. By replacing the precise optical and lighting components currently used in professional dermoscopes, this new lighting design will enable MoleScope to acquire high quality images at considerably lower cost. The project will also explore the possibility of incorporating polarizing filters to reduce reflections from the skin surface, enabling the dermoscope be used to quickly view lesions without skin contact, and also to reveal circulatory structures below the surface of the skin which are very important for diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma. Working with MetaOptima Inc., this proposal aims to engage and access the PI's expertise in photonics and optics, to develop a prototype of this novel low-cost dermoscope.