Friday JohnKu – AKA – TGIF – Fri-Yay/Good News

~ John W. Howell
credit – Samsung Solve for Tomorrow

Today’s good news story comes from the Good News Network.

Teens Developed App That Identifies Mouth Cancer–Making Early Diagnosis Easy and Winning $50k for Their School

By Andy Corbley–

GNN has reported on multiple occasions how artificial intelligence is being leveraged to detect signs of cancer.

Now, a team of high schoolers is using AI to help their community combat one of the deadliest forms: oral cancer.

The Oral Scan app detects signs of oral cancer using a photo taken on a smartphone with an 82% success rate. If the AI finds evidence of a tumor, it can diagnose the stage with an even better 87% success rate.

Not bad for a bunch of teenagers, and even though 82% is below what most medical ethicists believe should be the threshold for outsourcing tumor identification to a machine, it’s far better than the rate of 0%, which is what many in the team’s home state of Arkansas will experience.

52,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral cancer every year, and more than 12,000 die as a result, according to their research. Early detection of oral cancers can boost survival rates by 40%, but such cancers are detected early in only 30% of cases.

In dental deserts, these numbers are even worse. In Arkansas, for example, 90% of the population didn’t visit a dentist last year, and according to one dental surgeon the team spoke with, whole counties in Arkansas don’t even have a dentist to visit.

“We learned that current diagnosis methods are expensive, intrusive, and often inaccurate, making early detection rare,” said Veera Unnam, one of the team members, from Bentonville West High School.

Their response is Oral Scan, a free app that costs just 50 cents for each diagnosis and delivers a response in just 15 seconds.

The team designed the app to be usable in all countries on both Apple and Android IOS and ensured it. was easy and intuitive to use, showing their commitment not only to Arkansas but the world at large.

Recently, Unnam and his two colleagues entered Oral Scan into the 15th annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition, empowering public school students (grades 6-12) to drive positive change in their communities by applying STEM know-how to address real-world, pressing issues.

Each finalist school receives $50,000 in Samsung technology and supplies and will compete at the live Solve for Tomorrow Pitch Event in Washington, DC, on April 28th. Three National Winners will each earn $100,000 in prizes, and one will be named the Community Choice Winner.

Celebrating the 15th year of Solve For Tomorrow, Samsung has awarded more than $27 million in resources to nearly 4,000 public schools across the US to date, and the Oral Scan team will be hoping they’re among the recent winners. However, before the winner’s announcement, Oral Scan is already getting national news headlines, and the team has been invited to speak at medical conferences to present their invention.

You can watch the student’s presentation here.

The good news about this story is that a team of students took the initiative to find a way for the unserved to check for oral cancer. Today’s JohnKu talks about youth and the future. I hape you have a wonderful weekend.

Genius by John W. Howell © 2025

Inspired young people,

Working together achieve . . .

Results called genius.

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Published by John W. Howell

I have been working in business for over forty years and now have the time to work in special areas of interest. My passion has always been to create compelling stories of fiction. I have authored six novels and am working on my Seventh. The first novel is still in manuscript form and being utilized as a door stop in the laundry room. The second is a contemporary fiction novel of 89,000 words and is complete and I am currently seeking a publisher. I also write poetry but have not had the guts to share any with anyone. The one time I read a piece to a person their only comment was, “it doesn’t rhyme.” I will continue to write and hopefully my blog, Fiction Favorites at www.johnwhowell.com will provide some entertainment and an interesting thought or two. I live in the Austin area with my wife Molly and an assortment of loving pets.

57 thoughts on “Friday JohnKu – AKA – TGIF – Fri-Yay/Good News”

  5. I think this app is outstanding, especially since poor dental health and the use of tobacco by teens can lead to cancer. Kudos and thanks to those teens and I suspect they have bright futures.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Extraordinary! Who would have thought — but thank goodness, some young, curious minds did! What a great share, John. Thank you. 🌞

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You feed AI information, and it extrapolates meaning. So a bunch of photos or oral cancer loaded into a program will produce predictive and diagnostic abilities of the software. Thanks, Michael.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. There are areas so remote that it is not profitable for a dentist to set up practice. Also, the cultural norms in these remote places are not conducive to good oral hygiene.

      Like

  15. Wonderful story, John! I get the best feeling when I observe young people contributing things that will improve our lives. While a 82% accuracy rate may be below what the medical community would like, it’s a good start. Perhaps with further development, the app will continue to improve.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Wow, what an amazing story! Finally a story where AI isn’t some attempt to scam or mislead peeps. Hard to believe the Arkansas dental world is in such dire straits but think this story is such good news…for the school and the kids who created the app. Bravo!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I agree, Monika. The sad thing about some poverty-stricken places is that not enough people are knowledgeable about dental health to make it profitable for a dentist to open a practice.

      Liked by 1 person

  17. That is amazing and it is good news. However, I can add that detecting cancer using AI is not new. An engineering friend of mine was doing that in 1992. It was using image processing on white blood cells from a blood test and then applying AI / a one layer neural network to the image. A one layer neural network is pretty primitive compared to today’s AI but it worked.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. Now that is a smartphone! Smart teenagers, too. Your sharing of these stories, especially those highlighting brilliant young minds, reinforces my belief that we are in good hands. 🤞🏻 Thanks John!

    Liked by 1 person

  20. It is a wonderful genius of the young, as the story reveals and your JohnKu confirms.

    I’d like to add that this is a terrific application of AI. I have seen a few other great uses, but mostly I see applications that are used for propaganda, mind culling, artists’ rip offs, music rip offs and other heart breaking big brother stuff.

    OX OX OX

    Liked by 1 person

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