Orit Markowitz, MD: Artificial Intelligence, Patient Knowledge on Skin Cancer

In her interview segment with Orit Markowitz, MD, she described areas in need of greater research in the field of skin health relating to her SDPA 20th Annual Fall Dermatology Conference presentation, as well as innovations she hoped for in the future.

Markowitz works as a dermatologist and a skin cancer specialist. She is also CEO and Founder of Markowitz Medical is known for her work in developing minimally-invasive diagnostic and treatment protocols for skin cancer.

The presentation Markowitz was interviewed about explored some of the ways dermatologists and physician associates can distinguish pigmented squamous and pigmented basal cell skin cancers and melanomas, from less dangerous skin issues.

In this interview segment, she first highlighted some gaps in research that she hoped would be expanded upon, such as the field of artificial intelligence (AI) which she describes as helpful for efficiency in the medical field.

“How can we make it better?” Markowitz asked about artificial intelligence. “How can we evolve? How can we make people more efficient? And definitely not ‘how can we replace,’ because AI hasn't really done that in pretty much any field, and certainly not in medicine. It's more what it can do to make us better at what we do, and also to make us more efficient. So that's certainly an area of interest in research.”

Markowitz also described some of the research that she is involved with, such as the ways in which various kinds of medical technology may be used in other spaces.

“But what a lot of the research now that I'm doing is let's take the modalities that we use to diagnose skin cancer, non-invasive imaging, various other technologies, and let's apply them to other aspects of skin and dermatology,” she explained. “Maybe there's things we can learn in the cosmetic space, maybe there are ways to diagnose or even to manage other skin diseases. And so a lot of the research that I'm now doing is actually in those spaces as well.”

Markowitz finished with a description of the future regarding patient knowledge of skin health and skin cancer.

“We have more cases of skin cancer each year than breast, colon, lung, and prostate combined,” she said. “So patients are now more aware of that, due to the fact that they're just more there's just so many more outlets of education for patients.”

View the full interview above regarding Markowitz’s SDPA 2022 presentation.