AI is being used to spot the signs of a diabetes-induced eye disease

One hospital is now allowing artificial intelligence to take the reigns and diagnose its patients. The UI Health Care-Iowa River Landing in Coralville, Iowa has become the first hospital to adopt a new AI-powered machine to spot the early warning signs of diabetic retinopathy. If left undiagnosed, the condition, which arises as a complication for patients who suffer with either type one or type two diabetes, can cause blindness. The machine is capable of scanning and analysing the retinas of at-risk patients and will provide its own diagnosis without any human assistance. Dubbed IDx-DR, the technology has an 87 per cent sensitivity for the disease.