molecheck
Learning and science
medical education
SHOW HN2025
How HN took it
24 positive, 35 neutral or asking, 6 mixed, 27 critical, out of 92 comments about the project. Thread score +0.05.
Idea: 12 for, 7 againstExecution: 1 for, 10 againstDesign: 0 for, 4 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Useful for learning to spot skin cancer
From 3 comments
This is awesome. Great use of AI to realize an idea. Subject matter experts making educational tools is one of the most hopeful things to come out of AI. It’s just a bummer that…
DrewADesign on HNThis is awesome! After about 50 attempts, I have a much better sense of what to look out for when I see something. I wish there were more such focused apps. for specific specific…
dhruvbird on HNThanks - I'm glad you found it useful! I have been meaning to make it for many years but could never justify the time involved until AI made it possible.
sungam on HN
Objections
Image set is skewed toward skin cancers, not realistic proportions
From 3 comments
Very cool. I learned a lot as a non dermatologist but someone with a sister who has had melanoma at a very young age. I went from 50% to 85% very quickly. And that’s because most…
jjallen on HNWhat you created is a version of “am I hot or not” for skin cancer. The idea is constrained to the limitations of your programming capability. Showing a photo and creating 3…
lazarus01 on HNDude, everything is “I am concerned.”
lvl155 on HN
Missing guide link is broken and lacks diagnostic guidance
From 1 comment
Hi! That's really useful tool! I wish it also explained the decision making process, how to understand from the picture what is the right answer. I'm really getting lost between…
vindex10 on HN
Some cancerous images look benign and labels may be wrong
From 1 comment
Is this really "invasive melanoma"? https://drmagnuslynch.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/isic-images/ISIC_0024270.jpg
meindnoch on HN
Requests
Balance benign and malignant images 50:50
From 2 comments
Thanks, this is a good point - I think a 50:50 balance of cancer versus harmless lesions would be better and will change this in a future version. Of course in reality the vast…
sungam on HNYes you are right - the representation is biased due to the image dataset that I have used. I don't think it would be useful to match the population distribution since the…
sungam on HN
Add explanation of how to diagnose and a guide article
From 2 comments
This is very helpful feedback. I will add some more information to help with the diagnosis and add an article in the burger menu with detailed explanation. Being honest I didn't…
sungam on HNYes I need to add this along with a tutorial on skin cancer diagnosis. Honestly wasn't expecting anyone to use the app so just did the basics!
sungam on HN
Include lesion size or scale information
From 1 comment
I like the project! Congrats on the launch. As I understand it, size is one of the key indicators of melanoma. But in some of these images, it’s difficult to tell whether the…
andreasgl on HN
Questions
Is there a reputable AI model for detecting skin cancer?
From 1 comment
Is there any reputable (reviewed, endorsed) AI model to detect skin cancer? I have a lot of similar moles, and playing with this app make me concern about all of them.
toledocavani on HN
How does the decision process work for telling melanoma from other lesions?
From 2 comments
Hi! That's really useful tool! I wish it also explained the decision making process, how to understand from the picture what is the right answer. I'm really getting lost between…
vindex10 on HNI'm a doctor too and would love to hear more about the rationale and process for creating this. It's quite interesting to have a binary distinction: 'concerned vs not concerned',…
lukko on HN
Alternatives named
Earlier skin cancer learning app built by another commenter
From 1 comment
I made a quite similar app 7 years ago. https://melanoma.jenevoldsen.com/ May have been in the training data.
johannes_ne on HN
ChatGPT or general AI models for image diagnosis
From 2 comments
Not tried but my guess is ChatGPT will be quite accurate but get a small proportion wrong. The challenge with skin cancer is that we cannot afford to miss even 1:10,000 cases
sungam on HNLots of models out there but I would not trust any for diagnosis without review of a dermatologist yet. The challenge is unanticipated edge cases and managing…
sungam on HN