OREANDA-NEWS. Melanoma is a cancer of melanin-forming cells known as melanocytes and if not recognized and treated early, it can be fatal. During the recent years, a significant increase in melanoma cases has been witnessed in Europe and Israel. This growth can be attributed to greater UV exposure due to changing atmospheric conditions. The growing prevalence of melanoma coupled with the rising adoption of mHealth programs is bringing conducive growth opportunities to the melanoma detection mobile applications market in Israel and Europe.
 
How is European and Israel’s market responding to mobile applications for melanoma detection?
 
A rise in the cases of melanoma in European countries and in Israel has caused a surged in the demand for mobile applications for melanoma detection. As per a study by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the market in Europe and Israel is anticipated to grow at an impressive CAGR of 47% between 2014 and 2022, reaching a value of US$1.5 mn by 2022. 
 
Furthermore, a significant rise in the adoption of mHealth tools has attracted many companies to invest in this field. This has resulted in a highly fragmented market with high competition. Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, the U.K., and the Netherlands are expected to be the key growth markets for mobile applications for melanoma detection in Europe in the near future.
 
How has technology helped in reducing the number of deaths due to melanoma?
 
Early detection is important in order to reduce the diagnosis and treatment difficulties. Skin surveillance conducted by healthcare experts or through skin self-examination (SSE) conducted by the individual can help in the prevention of melanoma. A spike in the number of patients participating in SSE through mobile applications has aided early detection and helped in reducing the mortality rate.
 
There are a number of applications such as educational applications, mole tracking and reminder applications, algorithm analysis applications, and interactive teaching applications available on different operating system stores. In the past few years, there has been an increased inclination towards mobile applications that send images of moles and patches to panels of certified dermatologists who inspect the respective images and issue the diagnosis. 

What obstacles do companies face in generating revenues?
 
A number of mobile applications serving melanoma patients are available from different vendors/developers. Thus, there is a stiff competition among developers to gain more downloads and users. However, users show a lack of interest in using the paid/premium version of applications, which hinders revenue generation of the vendors.  To counter this, application developers are trying to develop alternative revenue models in order to generate profits. Some of the key players in the melanoma detection mobile applications market are Spot Mole, Dr. Mole, and Melanoma Watch.