Rochester-based VisualDx, has enhanced its VisualDx app with Core ML, a new framework enabling on-device machine learning to create powerful, rich experiences. The enhanced VisualDx app, used by global healthcare professionals, will help provide quick and accurate identification of rashes and skin lesions.

VisualDx, the world’s leading clinical decision support system for physicians and front-line providers, developed the technology to further help non-dermatology practitioners identify and treat an array of skin conditions previously difficult to diagnose without a specialist referral.

The VisualDx technology analyzes photos taken by the clinician and classifies them within a second on an iPhone or iPad.

The clinician views and confirms the lesion type classification, enters additional patient information and immediately reviews diagnostic possibilities and treatment options.

“iOS 11 with Core ML enables the type of on-device learning and artificial intelligence that will benefit patients, maintain their privacy, and allow for innovation in companies like ours,” says Art Papier MD, CEO and co-founder of VisualDx.

 “In a few milliseconds, our app makes a recommendation based on a photo of the condition, augmenting clinical thinking and driving better care.”

More than 65 percent of skin complaints are seen by non-dermatologists, and 15 percent of all primary care visits include skin-related issues. Medical students who later become primary care physicians receive on average only 21 hours of dermatology training, making it difficult to accurately diagnose skin conditions and their corresponding illnesses (J Am Acad Dermatol. 2001; 45[2]:250-255). Moreover, there is a growing shortage of dermatologists around the world.

The VisualDx app helps emergency medicine, urgent care and primary care professionals make smarter, faster, more accurate diagnoses and treatment choices based on a series of questions, including global locations, and interfaces with information such as local/regional outbreaks and health and medication history.

The full VisualDx suite is a web- and app-based clinical decision support system designed to enhance diagnostic accuracy, aid therapeutic decisions, and improve patient safety. Used in 1,600 hospitals and clinics across the US and by tens of thousands of individual healthcare professionals, it is based on the world’s largest curated and metadata-enabled medical image library.

VisualDx + DermExpert, an addition to the VisualDx subscription, is available for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. A consumer-focused machine learning app to improve self-care of skin-related conditions is under development.

VisualDx is an award-winning diagnostic clinical decision support system that has become the standard electronic resource at medical schools and hospital and clinic settings. VisualDx combines clinical search with a database of more than 41,000 of the best medical images in the world, plus medical knowledge from experts to help with diagnosis, treatment, self-education, and patient communication.