Seeing the unseen with artificial intelligence

By Jeffrey R. Willis, Associate Medical Director at Genentech Published 20 August 2019 (this article first appeared on gene.com) Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to have a dramatic impact on medicine by improving our ability to diagnose disease and select the best treatments for individual patients. In a proof-of-concept study published in the March Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, we have shown how this technology could revolutionise the way ophthalmologists diagnose diabetic macular edema (DME), a complication of diabetes that causes a thickening of the retina that can lead to irreversible blindness if left untreated. Tragically, many people lose their sight to DME in the prime of their lives, making it harder for them to work and care for themselves. The rising prevalence of diabetes has a direct correlation on new cases of DME.