Mole Mapper App

In honor of Skin Cancer Awareness month, a repeat article:

What is Mole Mapper?

Mole Mapper is a cellphone app available exclusively in Apple®’s App Store. Part of their ResearchKit suite of apps, Mole Mapper will help to gather data for melanoma research and, potentially, impact health outcomes in individuals at risk for melanoma. Using your iPhone camera, Mole Mapper tracks moles and how they change and grow over time. Rapid change or growth may indicate malignancy. Mole Mapper also reminds you to re-check your moles regularly. By sharing mole images over time, researchers can develop new ways of evaluating moles and may (at some point in the future) be able to tell whether you need to see a doctor or have a mole removed based upon a cell phone picture.

Mole Mapper was developed by a Ph.D. cancer biologist, Dan Webster, to help his wife (who is at high risk of melanoma) monitor her moles between visits with her dermatologist. This app allows users to photograph and map moles to zones on the body, and monitor changes in the size of the moles relative to a reference object (like a coin), over time. App users can maintain these images exclusively on their phone app to share with their medical team. Or, after a consent process on the app, they can transmit the data from images and periodic surveys to researchers for analysis.

Happy Mapping!

Head over to OHSU’s website for more info…