Were you unable to attend Transform 2022? Check out all of the summit sessions in our on-demand library now! In 2018, Iowa-based Digital Diagnostics made headlines when it became the first autonomous AI (artificial intelligence) system authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It received FDA approval to use AI to autonomously detect diabetic retinopathy in adults with diabetes, without the need for input from a doctor. Its AI-diagnostic system, the IDx-DR, can be used to identify diabetic retinopathy – one of the leading causes of blindness in the U.S. and other developed countries – as well as other serious eye diseases, including macular edema.

But an accuracy assessment from a lab goes only so far. It says nothing of how the AI will perform in the chaos of a real-world environment, and this is what the Google Health team wanted to find out. Over several months they observed nurses conducting eye scans and interviewed them about their experiences using the new system. When it worked well, the AI did speed things up. But it sometimes failed to give a result at all.

In a move that could help win over some skeptics about the value and efficacy of AI in clinical care, The American Diabetes Association, in its new set of clinical standards, recognizes the use of autonomous artificial intelligence for the screening of some medical conditions. WHY IT MATTERS The ADA's new 2020 Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes includes language noting that "AI systems that detect more than mild diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema authorized for use by the FDA represent an alternative to traditional screening approaches." The clinical standards – published earlier this month in the peer-reviewed journal Diabetes Care – represent a new source for evidence-based best practices, consulted by hospitals and health systems, physicians, insurers and quality organizations. While acknowledging that autonomous AI can be an alternative to traditional screening, however, the ADA specifies that it feels the "benefits and optimal utilization of this type of screening have yet to be fully determined." In addition, it cautions that "artificial intelligence systems should not be used for patients with known retinopathy, prior retinopathy treatment, or symptoms of vision impairment."

Last year, IDx-DR became the first-ever so-called "autonomous AI" system cleared by the FDA to provide a screening decision without the oversight of a doctor. Since then, IDx Technologies, the company behind the product, has begun to roll out this tool designed to detect diabetic retinopathy. Over 30 million people are living with diabetes in the US alone. "The disease itself is bad," said Michael Abramoff, a University of Iowa ophthalmologist and computer scientist, "but the complications make it even worse." One of those complications is diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness in American adults.

When Merdis Wells visited the diabetes clinic at the University Medical Center in New Orleans about a year ago, a nurse practitioner checked her eyes to look for signs of diabetic retinopathy, the most common cause of blindness. At her next visit, in February of this year, artificial intelligence software made the call. The clinic had just installed a system that's designed to identify patients who need follow-up attention. The Food and Drug Administration cleared the system -- called IDx-DR -- for use in 2018. The agency said it was the first time it had authorized the marketing of a device that makes a screening decision without a clinician having to get involved in the interpretation.

Artificial intelligence raises exciting possibilities for healthcare, but are companies promising more than they can deliver? But artificial intelligence's potential also comes with an incredible level of hype. "AI has the most transformative potential of anything I've seen in my life, and I graduated medical school 40 years ago. It's the biggest thing I've ever seen by far," prominent cardiologist and author Dr. Eric Topol told Medical Design & Outsourcing. "But it's more in promise than it is in reality."

Electronic health records, patient sensors and medical imagery can provide unprecedented amounts of information--information that can improve care. But sorting through volumes of data has become a burden, overwhelming doctors and keeping them from spending quality time with the patients they're trying to help. Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing that equation. It eliminates tedious data-sorting chores, but that's just the beginning. It also gives doctors the tools to make faster, more accurate diagnoses and helps them predict problems before they evolve into full-blown emergencies.

The promise of AI in healthcare is finally starting to move beyond speculation. In recent years companies have been funneling funds into advancements, especially those that cut costs and promote patient health. Spending on healthcare AI technology is expected to surpass $34 billion by 2025, compared to $2.1 billion in 2018, according to market intelligence firm Tractica. Amazon, Siemens, IBM, Optum and GE Healthcare and health systems Mayo Clinic, Memorial Sloan Kettering and Intermountain are mining patient records for health data to train AI algorithms, allowing the machines to learn by recognizing patterns and make key predictions. In some cases, such deep learning systems are already outperforming doctors.

Artificial intelligence is now being used to diagnose a common eye disease. The device, called IDx-DR, uses software and a retinal camera to take images of a patient's retina. It then uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to evaluate the images and effectively diagnose diabetic retinopathy, a diabetes complication that can lead to blindness. Developers hope this new device will make it easier for patients to get diagnosed outside of a clinical environment, leading perhaps to catching the condition earlier. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics became the first to use the new technology in June, according to reports from The Gazette newspaper.

Artificial intelligence is now being used to diagnose a common eye disease. The device, called IDx-DR, uses software and a retinal camera to take images of a patient's retina. It then uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to evaluate the images and effectively diagnose diabetic retinopathy, a diabetes complication that can lead to blindness. Developers hope this new device will make it easier for patients to get diagnosed outside of a clinical environment, leading perhaps to catching the condition earlier. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics became the first to use the new technology in June, according to reports from The Gazette newspaper.