Harnessing citizen-supported science and big-data through a mole tracking app

MoleMapper™ is an iPhone app designed to help users map, measure, and monitor your moles over time. Because changes in a mole’s appearance (size, shape or color) over time can indicate a cancerous lesion, MoleMapper™ gives users the tools to track moles over time, allowing the to detect potentially harmful changes in their skin. MoleMapper™ invites all app users to consent to research focusing on possible melanoma recognition through large-scale computer learning among other aims.

Developed by Dr. Leachman’s group and collaborators at Sage Bionetworks, MoleMapper™ is a cellphone app available in Apple®’s App Store. Part of the ResearchKit suite of apps, MoleMapper™ facilitates data collection for melanoma research and, potentially, impacts health outcomes in individuals at risk for melanoma. MoleMapper™ tracks moles and how they change and grow over time. The initial release of MoleMapper™ (2.0) demonstrated the efficacy of using smartphone capabilities as a research tool empowering citizen-supported science. With the advent of version 3.0 for the iPhone, the group is embarking on the next wave of research. This work is expected to generate more and better data to answer questions about future capabilities and limitations of using smart phones as potential aids to patients and the medical community seeking to provide quality healthcare. Dr. Leachman collaborates with Drs. Tracy Petrie and Ravikant Samatham on MoleMapper™.