A New Vision - Creating SkinBit to Detect Skin Cancer for Everyone

My melanoma journey opened my eyes to a healthcare crisis hiding in plain sight. Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States—and growing at an alarming rate. One in five Americans will develop skin cancer during their lifetime. Every day, approximately 9,500 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with this disease. These aren't just statistics; they're millions of stories like mine, filled with anxiety, uncertainty, and navigating fragmented care.

What makes this situation more dire is the severe shortage of dermatologists across the country. Today, there are only about 12,000 registered dermatologists in the U.S., with experts estimating that the shortage represents 25% of current demand. By 2030, this gap is projected to increase to 50%, creating a deficit of up to 13,400 physicians.

The consequences are already severe. Patients wait up to 12 months for a dermatology appointment. In places like Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the average wait time is 91 days. These delays disproportionately affect rural patients and ethnic minorities, who experience higher rates of melanoma mortality.

Meanwhile, our population is aging rapidly—the demographic over 65 is growing at 7% annually, while the dermatologist population grows at just 1%. Even more concerning, 30% of current dermatologists will be 65 by 2030. Add to this the rising incidence of skin cancer among younger populations, and we're facing a perfect storm.

This crisis stems not just from physician shortages but from an antiquated standard of care. The current approach to skin cancer detection relies on visual screening by dermatologists—a subjective method with significant variability. Studies show dermatologists achieve a sensitivity of only 71.3% and specificity of 86.6%. In practical terms, this means 29% of cancers are missed in initial screenings, while 13% of patients undergo unnecessary biopsies.

When I reflect on my own experience—how my cancer was nearly missed during a routine examination and was caught only because my dermatologist remembered to check under my mask at the last moment—I see how this subjective approach puts lives at risk.

The solution isn't simply training more dermatologists. We need to fundamentally reimagine how skin cancer detection works. This is the vision that drives SkinBit: to create a system where early detection is accessible to everyone, using technology to see what human eyes cannot.

My mission is to build a future where skin screening is as easy as a security scan at an airport—quick, non-invasive, and highly accurate. A future where patients don't wait months for appointments, where dermatologists can focus their expertise on confirmed cases rather than spending countless hours searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack, and where skin cancer is caught at its earliest, most treatable stages.

This isn't just about developing new technology—it's about reimagining the entire patient journey. It means creating tools that allow for decentralized access to professional-grade screening, establishing a data-driven approach that captures changes over time, and building a platform that connects patients with the care they need when they need it.

Every part of this vision stems from my personal experience: the anxiety of waiting for appointments, the frustration of navigating disjointed care, the realization that many of the standard practices aren't based on what's best for patients, and the understanding that data—systematically collected and intelligently analyzed—could transform how we approach skin health.

By combining technology with a patient-centered approach, we can create a system that detects skin cancer earlier, requires fewer invasive procedures, and ultimately saves more lives. This is the future SkinBit is building—one where my experience becomes increasingly rare, and where the 3.5 million Americans diagnosed with skin cancer each year face a very different journey than the one I endured.

For me, this isn't just a business endeavor—it's a mission born from personal trauma and fueled by the knowledge that we can do better. Much better. And we must.