Melanoma detector “sKan” wins international James Dyson award

TORONTO: Canadian team has won the 2017 international James Dyson Award on the  invention of a shout out device “sKan” that has turned out to be the most accessible and easier to detect the thermal changes associated with melanoma, the most deadly skin cancer.

The wining project sKan detects early melanoma producing heat maps of the skin to identify anomalies potential of the disease.

Globally, skin cancer stretches as the most common form of cancer. Regardless of assumptions that lead that diagnosis is prominent for it being an external form of cancer on the body, the annual death toll still exceeds to tens of thousands of deaths. 

Designed by a team from McMaster University in Canada, the sKan is based around the fact that cancer cells have a faster metabolic rate than healthy cells, meaning they release more heat.

With focus to the study, an early patch on skin determines the possible infection; where the suspected area has to be first cooled with an ice pack before the sKan device is placed against the skin.

Observations tell that using an array of temperature sensors called thermistors; the sKan will then monitor the area as the skin warms back up. If there's a melanoma present, it will warm up faster than the surrounding skin, revealing itself on a heat map and temperature difference time plot created through a connected computer program.

Being an innovation in case of using thermal screening for melanoma detection, the device is expected to gate as a fast and effective source and be far less expensive than other systems. High resolution thermal imaging cameras for that purpose can otherwise cost tens of thousands of dollars, but the sKan is predicted to cost less than AU$1,000 (about US$770).

The team plans to further the idea of sKan with clinical tests as a measure to rescue more lives as soon as possible.