IDx, a Coralville-based med technology firm, is giving the world a glimpse into what eye health care might look like in the future. IDx-DR, an autonomous artificial intelligence diagnostic system developed by Dr. Michael Abramoff to detect diabetic retinopathy, gained approval in 2018 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The technology is to be used in health care settings patients already visit, such as their primary care physician's office, to catch the disease before it causes permanent damage. "The early detection of this disease is important. We're reducing the burden on patients by making it easier to access testing," said Ben Clark, president and chief operating officer of IDx. "Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of preventable blindness in the United States," he said.

Google DeepMind is training its artificial intelligence software to detect early signs of eye diseases. It's aimed at detecting two diseases -- age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. The latter can lead to blindness if not detected early. DeepMind is analyzing about 1 million eye scans to develop an algorithm that can catch early warning signs of the conditions. "If you have an OCT scan done, a machine learning algorithm will be able to tell you if it's urgent versus something that's not so urgent. The company has caught flak from privacy critics in the past.

The artificial intelligence software is learning how to recognize early signs of two eye diseases.Video provided by Newsy A link has been sent to your friend's email address. The artificial intelligence software is learning how to recognize early signs of two eye diseases.Video provided by Newsy Newslook

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Moorfields Eye Hospital is one of the oldest and largest health centres for ophthalmic treatment, handling more than 600,000 patient visits each year. Staff conduct "many thousands" of optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans each week -- these are complex and can take time for healthcare professionals to analyze. If DeepMind's research is successful, this workflow could be accelerated and, as a result, ensure that many people retain their sight. Some conditions, such as diabetic retinopathy, can be prevented or severely limited provided they are detected early enough. "But that doesn't always happen," DeepMind explains.