NHS England South East will run suspected skin cancer referrals through Skin Analytics' DERM at all 18 of its trusts. The region announced the programme on October 6 and the company followed with its own release. Go-live is autumn 2026, the regional rollout is modelled over three years, and access extends to roughly nine million people.
DERM carries a Class III CE mark, and Skin Analytics says it is the only AI certified for autonomous use at that class. At triage the software can discharge patients with benign lesions without a clinician reviewing the images, and it routes higher-risk patients to fast-track specialist care. The company reports DERM rules out skin cancer 99.5 percent of the time and finds about 98 percent of skin cancers. It says the device has assessed more than 250,000 patients and identified more than 25,000 cancers since 2020.
Modelling cited by the region puts the saving at about 13,500 consultant hours a year, roughly 27,000 extra appointments, with up to a third of urgent referrals discharged before a first outpatient visit. Those projections and the accuracy numbers come from the company rather than an independent audit. DERM is already in use at 25 NHS trusts across England.
The transferable part for anyone building triage AI is where the autonomy sits. Skin Analytics put it in the discharge decision rather than in detection alone, a narrower claim that carries the heavier evidence burden.