The authors also seem to note this in their conclusion: “Our findings suggest that artificial intelligence algorithms may successfully assist dermatologists with melanoma detection in clinical practice which needs to be carefully evaluated in prospective trials.”
They use the verb assist. I think this will be the case, tools like this will be made available to board certified dermatologists to enhance their work. It won’t replace them anytime soon.
This field continues to be among the most competitive for physicians in the US. The barriers to entry are not only high, the number of residency spots get smaller each year when compared to total applicants. If interested, here’s some stats on med school rankings and derm match results: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/59p3z80r.
But over many years I wonder what will happen. Will there be paradigm shifts that make us rethink about all these specialities and subspecialties? Should we combine them or do something else?