The road from SICKcare to HEALTHcare

In 2011, Mircea Popa co-founded SkinVision, a company that develops image analysis algorithm that allows people to assess their moles using their smartphone.

SkinVision is now the first CE certified melanoma app that offers easy and fast check of your skin health.

We’ll find out more about the topic at ICEEhealth. This is the preview, in an interview by Lorena Macnaughtan.

How did SkinVision come to life?

– It started in 2011 when we thought about adapting a new image analysis algorithm to test moles.

– The idea was to use the smartphone to deliver the solution as the number of people owning one was growing rapidly. So we came up with our first iOS app called Skin Scan.

– Since then we moved the company to the Netherlands, we grew the number of research partnerships to improve our solution and we are now moving into teledermatology with the same philosophy.

What do you think are the major adoption issues to digital health solutions like the one you offer?

– The system in general is very resistant to change. For different reasons people find it hard to change what they are doing or the way they’re doing it.

– And in general the health system is very reluctant to adopt new solutions. It’s also a matter of trust.

– Whenever you talk about a new solution in health it’s crucial for people to trust that it is good enough (some might call it safe). And that takes time.

– Also, another issue that I see is that in most cases the ones most willing to change aren’t always the influencers. Let’s just say that change does happen but it doesn’t propagate.