Can Eagle-Eyed Artificial Intelligence Help Prevent Children From Going Blind?

In America, congenital cataracts--a clouding of the eye lens at birth that can lead to blindness--are vanishingly (and thankfully) uncommon. Like tooth decay or tetanus, better screening and technologies have led to earlier diagnoses, and the problem can largely be cured with surgery. But in developing countries, a lack of widespread expertise and resources mean that hundreds of thousands of children are now blind due to this treatable disease. "Missed or mistaken diagnoses, as well as inappropriate treatment decisions, are common among rare-disease patients and are contrary to the goals of precision medicine, especially in developing countries with large populations, such as China," write a group of Chinese researchers in a study published Monday in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. These researchers aim to fix that preventable treatment gap by using eagle-eyed AI.