DeepMind's AI can recommend treatment for more than 50 eye diseases with 94% accuracy

An AI system created by Google's DeepMind Health, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and University College London (UCL) Institute of Ophthalmology can correctly determine how to refer optometry patients in 94 percent of cases, putting it on par with top human experts. The advances in AI-driven eye disease treatment were detailed in a study being published online in the journal Nature Medicine. Results of the work that began in 2016 were first made public in a Financial Times report in February, which found AI used to analyze retinal scans for signs of the biggest eye diseases -- like glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy -- could be more accurate than trained human experts. Neural networks trained to discover patterns in images have also been used to do things like detect cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and kidney disease. "The AI technology we're developing is designed to prioritize patients who need to be seen and treated urgently by a doctor or eye care professional," said UCL scientist Dr. Pearse Keane in a statement shared with VentureBeat.