Artificial intelligence has the potential to allay the escalating demand for eye care in hospitals, according to Pearse Keane, professor of artificial medical intelligence at University College London (UCL) and medical retinal consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital.
In a presentation on the Optical Suppliers Association stand during 100% Optical at London’s ExCel, Keane highlighted a 33% increase in ophthalmology appointments over the past five years with nearly 10m appointments held each year.
‘We have the largest ophthalmic imaging resource in the world at Moorfields – larger than the combination of the top five US providers combined – plus we have Gold Standard governance for engagement and privacy,’ he said.
With reference to RETFound, the collaboration between UCL and Moorfields, which utilises 1.6 million retinal images to assist early research into progressing to a functioning algorithm, Keane said he was proud that AI was at the forefront of AI in medicine, but cautioned that we are still at the early stages.
'The most important application in the short term is, perhaps not in direct patient care, but in clinical trial planning. We can help to overcome the challenges of recruitment by sending an algorithm to clinics to identify segment pathology to find patients suitable to be approached to participate,’ he said.
More than 500 medical AI systems are in the FDA approval system and using retinal scan data to track patients for early signs of systemic disease is progressing, said Keane, but insurance, infrastructure, payment systems and formatting governance were still ‘in the melting pot’.