Implementation of an automatic skin disease identification system using convolutional neural network for scabies in long-term care facility residents

Scabies are the most common infectious skin disease among residents of long-term care facilities. The outbreak of infection is often difficult to control. Sarcoptes scabies cause scabies, which spread rapidly in people in close contact with each other. Due to the lack of healthcare professionals in long-term care facilities, the lack of dermatologic knowledge and recognition skills of scabies among frontline caregivers make it challenging to detect scabies infections early. In this study, we implement an automatic scabies identification system using a webcam or cell phone lens to capture images of residents' skin in long-term care facilities and then use a deep-learning convolutional neural network to identify scabies automatically. The experimental results show that the proposed system can accurately and quickly identify scabies and can be applied to long-term care facilities.