Together with our research team from the Hospital Clínic and Accenture Digital organized a Hackathon on artificial intelligence in dermatology to obtain algorithms that can improve the prognosis of patients with melanoma. The term hackathonas can be deduced from its name, is derived from the union of the terms hacker and marathon (marathon in English). It is a competitive event in which teams of designers, programmers, developers and technology subject matter experts work together to create software solutions to a specific problem that is presented to them within a pre-established time frame.
During the 2019 edition More than 50 experts in big data, analytics and artificial intelligence participated in this Hackathon in order to develop an algorithm capable of predicting the survival of melanoma patients by combining the characteristics of both the patient and the tumor.
What is the impact of melanoma?
Melanoma is the most aggressive type of skin cancer, accounting for 4% of all skin cancers and is responsible for 80% of deaths related to skin malignancies. Although it affects people of all ages, it is most common after the age of 55. In recent years we have seen a significant increase in its incidence and it is an increasingly frequent reason for consultation in our offices.
"The way in which we classify melanomas is based on few characteristics of the tumor and this makes the current classification poorly personalized."
Sebastian Podlipnik
Why is this artificial intelligence hackathon important?
The analysis of the patient's own characteristics together with the characteristics of the tumor will allow us to advance towards personalized medicine in melanoma and to obtain a model to select more precisely the most appropriate diagnostic tests and treatments for each patient.
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