2023 Alan Cooper Epiderm Lecture: AI-Powered Skin Cancer Diagnosis

The Alan Cooper Epiderm Lecture was established in recognition of Epiderm's generous support of UQ's dermatology and skin cancer research programs. Professor Alan Cooper AM, a driving force behind academic dermatology in Australia, played a lead role on the board of Epiderm. This year the topic of the lecture was AI-powered skin cancer diagnosis.

AI-powered skin cancer diagnosis is a promising new technology that has the potential to improve early detection and treatment of skin cancer. AI algorithms can identify skin cancer with a high degree of accuracy, and can be used to triage patients and prioritise those who need to be seen by a specialised clinician urgently.

AI-powered skin cancer diagnosis also has the potential to increase accuracy when trained on large datasets, reduce wait times and increase access to care, particularly for people who live in rural or underserved areas.

However, there are many challenges which still need to be addressed before AI-powered skin cancer diagnosis can be widely adopted, including availability of data, algorithm bias and regulatory approvals. ACRF-ACEMID aims to tackle some of these important questions.

The panel discussion was facilitated by Dr Aideen McInerney-Leo and panel members included Professor H Peter Soyer (UQ), Associate Professor Victoria Mar (Monash), Ms Tamara Dawson (Melanoma and Skin Cancer Advocacy Network) and Professor Geoff McColl (UQ). The panelists are pictured below with Professor Alan Cooper.