Overview
The ₹8700 crore dermatology market in India has been the fastest-growing medical therapy segment over the last few years. Our idea was to design an experience where anybody can diagnose skin diseases with just a mobile phone. Data shows that most of the cases to a dermatologist just require a visual examination and a few questions. We wanted to tap into that market through an app which can analyze the skin, just like a dermatologist using Image processing and Machine Learning. Our algorithm will then match it with our database to predict with a percentage surety what the problem is most likely.
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The user can then get it confirmed from a Dermatologist which will get the report as well as the examination performed by our application.
The Problem
Often brushed aside as just some cosmetic issue, Skin problems are one of the most overlooked issues. Using smartphones to analyze skin issues is a bit of tried and tested idea, which hasn't had much success up till now.
As engineers, it looks like a pretty easy problem to us, right? Feed an image processing algorithm enough training data and make it perfect.
But in reality there still isn't any successful mobile application in the market that is allowing users to get instantaneous and reliable solutions to their medical problems.
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We believe part of the problem is the lack of an interface that could create a similar experience as a doctor and conclusively analyse the problem of the user (or diagnose it).
(WebMD's online symptom checker)
The potential
With over 560 million internet users, India is the second largest online market in the world, ranked only behind China. With access to resources higher than ever before, the ease of increasing user base to improve the data set also provides a great potential in the indian market.
Source: "Dermatology Devices market - Growth, future prospects. and competitive analysis, 2017 - 2025"
A major chunk of patients that visit a dermatologist are often having acne or other benign cosmetic problem.
Challenge
In terms of developer end
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Getting large reliable data sets for training the algorithm.
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Ambiguity regarding Medico legal jurisprudence in context to mobile based assistance in India
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And most importantly, creating a reliable and robust algorithm that can analyze the ailment.
In terms of User end
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To create an app that could speak to the user, and be so intuitive that users would adopt and trust a mobile application to find results to their medical issues.
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1. Trust
Nobody wants to jeopardise their health. And trusting your mobile for medical advice and complex medical results can seem to be a scary thing.
2. Security
Making the user share his information as well as his personal images at the times of medical emergencies is a daunting task to say the least.
3. Adoption
Developing a system that is completely radical to the ways how we’ve been dealing with medical problems and making it so intuitive that people not only like it but also adopt it.
4. Feels like a human
Creating that empathic relationship of a doctor on your phone is a complex but essential task which is necessary for that in depth and intimate care in times of emergencies.
Process
I started out by breaking down the concept of a doctor and what it means to be someone who requires immediate medical attention.
Then we began by defining the kind of user we would be targeting, the functions it would be performing, the goals we had in terms of the business and our design language.
And since it was an app that I was developing myself, I had the freedom to decide the target users and the functionality of the app.
Creating Personas
Iconography
Typography
Colours
Material Design
The Solution
