FDA Approves AI That Can Analyze Your Eyes

IDx-DR is a software program that can detect a certain type of eye disease from photos of a human retina, and it was just approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This is a huge win for artificial intelligence (AI) and MedTech development: this is the first time the FDA has approved an AI-powered diagnostic device that doesn't require a doctor to interpret the results. Diabetic retinopathy is an eye disease in which an excess of blood sugar damages blood vessels located in the back of the eye. It's the most common vision malady for people afflicted with diabetes, with about 200,000 new cases occurring per year. After photos of a patient's retina are taken with a special retinal camera, IDx-DR's algorithm verifies that the picture quality is good enough to use for analysis.