Miiskin Urges People to Look for New Moles with the 80/20 Reminder for Skin Self-Exams

Miiskin’s partner, The Skin Cancer Foundation, recommends looking for anything new, changing or unusual on your skin.

DENMARK, May 5, 2020 — This Skin Cancer Awareness Month, Miiskin, a digital health platform, is reminding people of an essential step in skin self-examinations that may save lives: remember to look for new lesions on the skin, in addition to watching for changes to existing moles.

Miiskin suggests using an 80/20 concept to guide self-exams, reinforcing the fact that roughly 80 percent of melanomas come from new moles and 20 percent come from existing moles. While not a firm rule, it helps remind people that identifying new moles can be particularly important to identifying skin cancer early. 

According to The Skin Cancer Foundation, about 70-80 percent of melanomas arise on apparently normal skin, while 20-30 percent of melanomas are found in existing moles. There are several types of skin cancers with varying warning signs, so self-exams should be broad and inclusive. It can be confusing, which is why The Skin Cancer Foundation’s The Big See campaign encourages people to check their skin carefully for anything new, changing or unusual, and to contact their dermatologist immediately if they spot anything concerning.

“After having my first melanoma removed in my 20s, I tried, unsuccessfully, for years to find an easy way to track new and existing moles,” said Chris Iorillo, a Miiskin user. “All the other apps were clunky and time-consuming. Miiskin makes it quick and painless to track changes on my existing moles, as well as detect new ones. Since using Miiskin, I’ve had two suspicious spots removed – luckily, before they had the chance to become life-threatening.”

“Our intention with this reminder is to ingrain an important habit in people that supports more comprehensive self-exams, especially in those with risk factors for skin cancer,” said Jon Friis, founder of Miiskin. “Tracking individual lesion changes, such as a change in the shape or color of one mole, is still very important and should be performed in a full skin self-exam. However, education around individual mole tracking has been more robust and that step is more widely known by consumers. Our 80/20 reminder seeks to create more education around this less common part of the self-exam.”

“Identifying new moles or suspicious marks on the skin is crucial to the early detection of skin cancer, particularly melanoma, one of the deadliest forms of the disease,” says Deborah S. Sarnoff, MD, president of The Skin Cancer Foundation. “One of the easiest ways to catch skin cancer early is to take photographs with your phone, and be sure to share anything new, changing or unusual with your dermatologist as soon as possible.”

The Miiskin app, used by 500,000 people around the world, allows users to digitally track the appearance of skin and moles for early detection of skin changes, including the appearance of new moles and changes to existing moles. It is the first AI-powered, skin health app to offer individual mole and wider-body skin mapping, based on the science of mole mapping methods used by dermatologists. Side-by-side photo comparisons, reminders for routine checking, and other tools empower users to identify concerns to bring to their doctor. It does not evaluate risk level or diagnose skin cancer.

To further empower people to perform comprehensive self- exams on a regular basis, Miiskin is offering the premium app subscription to users free for three months. This three-month free trial is available by visiting miiskin.com/scf.

For more information on how to consider the 80/20 reminder when performing skin self-exams, read Miiskin’s Self-Exam Guide.

About Miiskin

Founded in Denmark, Miiskin is a digital health platform helping more than 500,000 people around the world routinely track their skin changes. The app simplifies the self-examination process that is crucial to providing doctors with essential health information during checkup appointments. Deploying the latest in AI, computer-vision and other technologies, Miiskin reminds and empowers users to take individual and full-body photographs of the skin. Miiskin is the only skin tracking app supported by the Skin Cancer Foundation and other dermatology associations around the world. Miiskin can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play, with advanced features available for a 30-day trial. For more information, visit www.miiskin.com.

Media Contacts

AM Public Relations for Miiskin

Ashley Moore
[email protected]

Jessica Garcia
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