Show HN: I'm a dermatologist and I vibe coded a skin cancer learning app

Posted by sungam 6 days ago

Show HN: I'm a dermatologist and I vibe coded a skin cancer learning app(molecheck.info)

Coded using Gemini Pro 2.5 (free version) in about 2-3 hours.

Single file including all html/js/css, Vanilla JS, no backend, scores persisted with localStorage.

Deployed using ubuntu/apache2/python/flask on a £5 Digital Ocean server (but could have been hosted on a static hosting provider as it's just a single page with no backend).

Images / metadata stored in an AWS S3 bucket.

428 points | 259 commentspage 4

leetrout 6 days ago|

Why do the images get a weird offset slice effect on safari on mobile after submitting a guess with the buttons?

sungam 6 days ago|

No idea, I will look into this

ziptron 6 days ago||

Thank you for making this.

My dad passed away from squamous cell carcinoma in 2010. In retrospect, through my casual research into the space and tools like this one, it occurs to me that the entire event was likely preventable and occurred merely because we did not react quickly enough to the cancer’s presence.

sungam 6 days ago|

Thanks for your comment - my practice is focused on skin cancer and I see so many patients that bring a photo from many months earlier that shows an obvious skin cancer that could have been treated more easily at an earlier stage. Patient education should enable these to be picked up sooner.

8mobile 5 days ago||

You've really had a great idea, and maybe you can save lives with this. Do you process the images yourself? Do you pass them to some AI? How does it work for privacy? Do you delete them afterwards? Thanks and congratulations.

kittikitti 6 days ago||

This is actually a really great vibe coded app. It's simple and doesn't require much logic. Will vibe coding catch on to more sophisticated and complex use cases? That's only if the whispers about an upcoming AI Winter are false.

sungam 6 days ago|

Thanks - I'm glad you found it useful! I have been meaning to make it for many years but could never justify the time involved until AI made it possible.

m-hodges 6 days ago||

Good example of shovelware that some say is absent.¹

¹ https://mikelovesrobots.substack.com/p/wheres-the-shovelware...

sungam 6 days ago|

Had not heard of that term before, but looking at the article I would agree!

saulpw 6 days ago||

The hamburger menu "About" and "How To Recognize Skin Cancer" both go to a 404 page that's a copy of a company website called "Revessa Health". Is this your company?

sungam 6 days ago|

Thanks for highlighting - I wasn't expecting anyone to use the app so haven't added these yet but will do so asap

The app is hosted on my Digital Ocean server that hosts a few other projects including my Revessa Health site

dhruvbird 6 days ago||

This is awesome! After about 50 attempts, I have a much better sense of what to look out for when I see something. I wish there were more such focused apps. for specific specific health related things.

sungam 6 days ago|

Thanks, I am pleased you found it useful. This is exactly how a dermatologist learns to recognise skin cancer - by making decisions and then getting feedback. I think anyone can improve dramatically with an hour or so of practice and then this skill is useful lifelong.

dhruvbird 6 days ago||

I wonder if most people get the same things wrong. I checked your other comments and noticed that there is no server side component. In case you add one, I would be really interested in knowing which ones are most confused, and in which direction.

sungam 6 days ago||

Yes I could add this quite easily - will do in the next version

minton 6 days ago||

The zoomed in view is great if you’re commonly examining under magnification, but perhaps a slightly less zoomed view (or ability to switch between each) might make this more practical for common folks.

sungam 6 days ago|

Thanks, I will try to source alternative images for the next version

incone123 6 days ago|

The link to "how to recognise..." is broken.

Nice app. But wouldn't a doctor normally get a history as well? Anyway, I'm not a doctor which is probably why I got most of the answers wrong :)

sungam 6 days ago|

Yes a doctor would get a history which will help, however I get a high score on these images and another skin cancer doctor that commented also got a high score so in most cases the diagnosis can be made accurately on the image alone.

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