AI diagnosis: will tech end up replacing human doctors?

In April 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made a momentous decision. The agency's approval of IDx-DR, a diagnostic system developed by Iowa-based IDx Technologies for diabetic retinopathy, wasn't a revolutionary move on the face of it, but nevertheless marked an important inflection point in the delivery of modern healthcare. So why was the FDA's decision to award marketing clearance to IDx-DR so significant? As is increasingly the case in medical technology, the answer lies with artificial intelligence (AI). The IDx-DR software is driven by AI, and it's the first system approved to autonomously provide diagnostic assessments without the supervision of an expert clinician. The system involves capturing images of a patient's eye with a retinal camera – in this case the Topcon NW400 – that can be operated by any non-specialist staff member with a little training.