During her session, “Artificial Intelligence for Alopecia: Bringing Your Clinic Into 2023,” presented on the first day of the 2023 AAD Annual Meeting, Maria K. Hordinsky, MD, FAAD, highlighted the kinds of technology available for physicians to use when treating alopecia.

To start, she went over the traditional hair study assessment measures, which include global assessment, subject self-assessment, investigator assessment, and independent photo review. These are important because the patient’s self-assessment could differ from investigator and clinical assessment. For example, patients may be frustrated believing their condition has not improved but the latter assessments prove otherwise.

“In clerical practice though, we know that hair loss is common, hair regrower is slow, and interval changes during treatment can be very difficult for patients to appreciate,” she stated.

She continued to introduce the major technologic tools physicians could use in their clinic, including:

• Folliscope
• TrichoLAB Studio
• HairMetrix

First, Folliscope is the technology that has been around for a few years. It is a small, handheld device containing a high-definition camera that magnifies up to a 100x for a detailed look at hair and hair follicles in the scalp. This provides information on the total number of hairs on the scalp and the diameter of the strand of hair.

“This is something a lot of people have used in their hair disease clinics, but it could be a little bit more time consuming,” she noted.

Next, she reviewed TrichoLAB Studio, which can be utilized for both clinical and stethoscopic assessment. Brands such as Leviacam use integrated polarized light to be able to better see scalp health in addition to hair fibers in polarized and nonpolarized ways. This also has a larger area of about 2.3 cm² where physicians can cut the hairs and then monitor the growth over a period of time. Additionally, physicians can utilize Virtual Tattoo to find the same spot again to measure and analyze. This device analyzes the area under the microscope and will deliver data as it continues to analyze. One final aspect of this system is that, in clinical trials, physicians can use hair-to-hair matching, which helps see how many new fibers came in and track each hair over the time of a patient's treatment.

Finally, the last piece of technology Dr Hordinsky summarized was the HairMetrix and D200^EVO Dermatoscope. This piece of technology gives physicians measurements that are important when managing patients, such as:

• Hair count per cm²
• Sum of hair width per cm²
• Terminal to vellus ratio
• Average hair length

“We're primarily focusing, though, on hair quality, hair diameter, hair numbers, and scalp,” she added.

She explained that the clinician tags the locations where data are wanted. An example she presented showed the clinical use of this technology in scarring and non-carring hair loss disorders. These tend to be done every 6 months or so to assess the efficacy of a treatment even if the patient does not think it is working.

Dr Hordinsky concluded her session by emphasizing how these technologies are practical for clinical care and clinical trials and research in addition to an added focus when tracking each hair over a time.

Reference
Hordinsky M. Artificial intelligence for alopecia: bringing your clinic into 2023. Presented at: 2023 AAD Annual Meeting; March 17–21, 2023; New Orleans, LA.