The future of skin allergy testing: Mayo Clinic developing tool to help speed diagnosis

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — Skin allergies are common and often frustrating to diagnose. But new technology could soon help change that. Dr. Alison Bruce, a dermatologist at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, is aiding the development of an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool to support allergy patch testing.  

The tool is being designed to help patients self-apply test patches and use their smartphones to capture images over time, with technology offering guidance that could assist clinicians in diagnosis. It's a promising step toward faster, easier and more accessible skin allergy care, especially for people in rural areas or those with limited access to specialists.  

Itchy skin. Swollen patches. A red, angry rash.  

"That is when a substance comes into contact with the skin and causes a reaction," Dr. Bruce says. 

You may think of poison ivy triggering a reaction, but jewelry, fragrances, lotions and many more substances can cause a skin reaction known as contact dermatitis. 

"What happens is the skin just turns red, itchy, flaky, scaly, kind of sometimes becomes fissured, if it's very severe, kind of becomes so red and inflamed that the skin breaks down and you get little cracks and crevices in the skin," Dr. Bruce says. 

A new tool in development at Mayo Clinic aims to help patients and their healthcare team determine the cause of the reaction.  

"We've been working on an AI tool to help with skin allergy testing because in current state, if you suspect that, as a patient or your doctor suspects that, you have allergic contact dermatitis, the way to test for that would be through patch testing," she says. 

But testing can be time-consuming, requiring patients to return to the dermatologist's office multiple times.  

Enhancing testing with AI would allow you to put the patches on your skin yourself, remove them at a predetermined time and then use the camera on your phone to capture images, Dr. Bruce explains.  

AI then could interpret the reactions, for example, as "'Yes, there's a red reaction that corresponds to nickel, and, therefore, you're allergic to nickel,'" she says. 

The new tool can improve the lives of those having skin reactions by making diagnosis more accessible and faster for patients, Dr. Bruce adds.  

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