Skinive is an AI-technology for Skin Health Self-Examination. Users upload photos of skin areas with suspicious spots, moles or rash into the app, Skinive algorithms examine the image and make an instant diagnosis. Skinive can detect signs of numerous skin diseases such as pre-cancerous moles and skin cancer, papillomavirus, rosacea and others.
Start-up Skinive began life as AI Skin Health Self-Examination service in 2018 in Belarus. Since then Skinive AI has been continuously learning from medical doctors’ input and countless images and descriptions of skin diseases. Recently the company from Belarus has become a finalist of Rockstart AI Accelerator program in the Netherlands.
Innovation Origins has spoken with Kirill Atstarov, the founder of Skinive, about highlights and challenges that the start-up has experienced and about its business journey from Belarus to the international market.
What motivated you to start Skinive? How did it happen?
Our motivation was to create our own health self-examination product. At first, we wanted to create AI technology for diagnostics of some common diseases and prediction modelling. However, this would involve the use of X-rays or ultrasound images. For that reason, the applications of our technology required pilot projects with medical institutions, which was difficult to arrange in Belarus. That is why we restricted our scope to a skin health examination. In this way, we could bring our technology directly to the end-user – thanks to the fact that nowadays almost everyone has a smartphone. We started with the diagnostics of skin cancer. But soon we realized that the market already had enough of AI skin examination apps serving the same purpose, so we broadened the range of skin diseases that could be detected by our algorithms.
What kind of problems do you solve?
Our main motivation is to create a product that would allow many people to be healthy. Now people can have a quick skin examination with our app, get a result and if a (potentially) dangerous skin condition is found, users need to visit a doctor. However, we plan that in the future it would be possible to confirm the diagnosis with a doctor in the app – in the form of a telemedicine service. Two opinions – from the AI and a dermatologist – are especially useful to have if people are dealing with skin allergy.
What is the biggest obstacle that you needed/will need to overcome?
Our main problem was that medical doctors in Belarus were initially sceptical about our technology. In the beginning, we faced a lot of criticism. Some medical specialists did not understand how AI-based diagnostics worked, some people even called our technology health fraud.
When I came to the Netherlands for the Rockstart program, I visited Nijmegen and met medical doctors who are specialized in diagnostics with the usage of neural networks and AI. That was a pleasant surprise!
What is the difference between Skinive and other skin self-examination apps?
Most of the existing skin examination apps focus on diagnostics of skin cancer. With our AI algorithms and we can detect and identify not only skin cancer but about thirty other skin conditions. Skin cancer is undoubtedly a dangerous disease, but it is not the most common skin problem. Most frequently people suffer from acne or viral infections, and we want to help those people.
Do you receive support from the government of Belarus?
The activity of Skinive and similar start-ups has attracted the attention of the Belarusian government. So, at the beginning of October there was a round table in Minks with the Minister of Health and the administration of Belarussian main technology hub – Hi-tech Park. They were discussing the new ways of cooperation between medical specialists and software companies like Skinive. As a result, they came up with a program that makes IT and healthcare cooperation more convenient both sides. It is an important step for the industry. Previously medical doctors could only work with IT-companies as private individuals in their free time – not as employees of a hospital.
Are there accomplishments that made you proud of your work?
The accomplishment we are most proud of is the first life that we have saved with our app! That happened during an international IT-conference EMERGE in Minsk. We were demonstrating what we do as a start-up to the visitors. We were letting them try out our application and examine moles, spots and rash they were concerned about. One of the visitors took the test and received a “potential threat” result for a mole on his face. We helped this person to arrange a visit to a dermatologist and oncologist in Minsk. They confirmed the diagnosis – the early stage of skin cancer – and directed him to the surgical removal of this life-threatening mole. After that case we received lots of attention in media, many people started using our service and the Belarusian Ministry of health offered us support. So that was a breakthrough for Skinive.
What can we expect from you in the near future?
We are going to become residents of the High-Tech Park in Minsk – the “Silicon Valley” of Belarus. Skinive has finished the Rockstart AI-track and with their help, we are setting up Skinive in the Netherlands. The company is going to start working in the European market. However, we are planning to leave RnD centre in Belarus.
s long as the software development concerned, we are planning to create an educational smartphone app for medical doctors and all the people who want to learn more about their skin.
What is the ultimate goal of Skinive?
We want to create a technology that enables people to diagnose different skin conditions in their early stages – a personal tool for skin health monitoring.
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