Leading experts, policymakers and eye care professionals came together in London on April 2 for The College of Optometrists’ AI in Eye Care Summit to discuss a shared vision for the future of eye care.
The summit served as a collaborative platform for key stakeholders to address both the opportunities and challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI) in patient care and professional practice, shaping the group and panel discussions throughout the day.
AI perceptions
Ahead of the summit, the College surveyed its members to better understand how AI is perceived and also to give them the opportunity to influence the agenda at the conference.
The survey responses highlighted both enthusiasm and caution, reinforcing the need for a thoughtful and inclusive approach to the integration of AI into eye care in the coming years.
Some 91% of respondents said they believe AI will have a positive impact on diagnosing eye conditions, improving accuracy and efficiency, while 79% could see it improving patient information and triage, ensuring faster and more effective care.
Respondents also emphasised that AI-driven image analysis, diagnostics, and record-keeping could streamline workflows, enhance collaboration between ECPs, and even empower patients to take a more active role in their eye health.
Although 55% thought AI could positively impact patient-practitioner relationships, a further 23% said they worry it may have a negative effect. Interestingly, younger respondents (18-34 year olds) were more sceptical and more likely to believe that the technology could ‘weaken the human connection’ in healthcare.
Free-text responses also revealed concerns about data security, job security, AI accuracy, and regulatory oversight with fears about patients using AI for self-diagnosis and the potential for misuse of AI-generated information.
Sharing ideas
Daniel Hardiman-McCartney, lead clinical adviser at the College and a speaker at the summit, described the event as ‘energising and inspiring’. ‘The room was full of expertise from across clinical practice, technology, academia, and law—all focused on how we can enable AI to make a meaningful difference in patient care.
‘What stood out was the spirit of collaboration and the shared commitment to ensuring that AI is adopted responsibly, with ethics, transparency, and patient safety at its core,’ he said.
Hardiman-McCartney was joined by professors Manuel Trucco from the University of Dundee; Mike Horler from Sussex Eye Hospital; Chris Eastham from Fieldfisher LLP; Karl Jeebaun from the Optical Suppliers Association and Andy Bush from the UK National Eye Health and Hearing Study’s Patient and Public Expert Working Group.
Their presentations covered the clinical, technical, ethical, patient and legal aspects of AI’s deployment in eye health. Key issues highlighted focused on the balances between patient interests in privacy and data security and the need for high-quality, real-world data to improve performance.
Topics also explored were: the importance of effective legal and regulatory checks and balances versus the speed with which AI technologies are developing. The need for the UK to lead the development of AI versus the risks of the proliferation of untested AI products was also addressed.
In the wake of the growth rate of AI, guest speaker Jeebaun, CEO of software company Sparca, gave his insights into how Agentic AI will drive advances through, clinical research acceleration, enhanced diagnostic support systems and operational optimisation, using a human in the loop or work buddy approach with mandatory human oversight.
‘AIEG initiative is trying to achieve critical stakeholder alignment on AI implementation frameworks - essential to avoid technological obsolescence in the optical sector. The event was full of discussion points and opinions for all sides and is a critical piece of work by the College of Optometry that I welcome being part of,’ he said.
Best practice
During the summit, attendees also discussed outcomes from the first round of the AI consensus process, which aims to collect opinions and inform the development of guidance on AI in eye care in the coming months.
Conversations focused on data quality and security, equity of care and access to care; and managing boundaries and standards while enabling effective deployment of AI in eye health.
Michael Bowen, director of knowledge and research at the College, expressed his gratitude to the members of the AI Expert Advisory Group for ‘so generously giving their time to the process of identifying the key themes, opportunities, issues and challenges that AI poses for eye health’.
‘The diversity and wide knowledge of the group members will ensure that the priorities that the AI and Eye Care Summit, and the associated consensus process, will identify are reliable and robust,’ he said.
