Dermoscopy

Dermoscopy is looking at a skin lesion, a spot or a mole, with a device that combines two things: its own light and magnification. It doesn't cut, doesn't puncture and doesn't take anything away, which is why it's called noninvasive: it rests against the skin and you look.

What it gains is what the naked eye can't pull apart. Inside that lesion there are structures that at a glance blur into a single brown spot, and under the light and the magnification they separate out. It's the difference between seeing a mosaic from across the room and stepping close enough to make out each piece. There is one thing the device doesn't solve on its own: how accurate the exam turns out also depends on how much time the person using it has spent looking through it.