Dr Divya Rao, Medical Director and Head of AI, Remidio explains why technology intervention imperative to aid preventable vision loss
Of the 2.2 billion estimated cases of vision impairment globally, close to 1 billion could have been addressed or are yet to be corrected. Early screening leveraging medtech advancements to ensure timely redressal is essential to minimise the impact of vision loss on the quality of life.
India is home to close to 25 per cent of the world’s total population of visually impaired individuals. A study by The Lancet, however, also posits that close to 90 per cent of people with vision impairment have a preventable or treatable cause. That, right there, is what we need to focus on – early screening for visually impairing conditions.
Easier said than done, though.
From creating awareness on the need for regular eye check-ups to making accessible eye care possible across the length and breadth of the country and empowering eye care professionals with advanced technology to screen and guide patients towards care gap closure – a lot to do!
Advances in medtech coupled with public and private sector programs are essential to making preventable vision loss a reality. While the government and international agencies have rolled out beneficial projects, medtech can ensure faster, efficient, and timely delivery of the benefits of those schemes to the masses.
Why is technology intervention imperative to aid preventable vision loss?
In India, approximately 20,000 ophthalmologists serve a population of 1.3 billion. Further, the availability of eye care professionals is skewed in favour of urban areas resulting in a shortage of trained individuals for screening in rural areas.
Further, vision impairment and socio-economic factors have an inverse relationship – those from marginalised backgrounds are most likely to have some form of visual impairment. This means that there is a need for effective solutions that can help identify preventable conditions and make them easily available to encourage and empower individuals to seek care.
As a technology first company crafting solutions to prevent blindness, we believe that using technology to enable non-medical specialists to screen for retinal conditions could be a solution today!
But how can a non-medical person screen for retinal conditions?
The immediate question that comes up when such a solution is offered is how feasible is it for a non-medical person to accurately screen for such conditions so that the ophthalmologist can focus their energies on complex cases? The answer lies in rethinking the screening from the perspective of a layperson.
Today, technology has progressed to such an extent that individuals can monitor their body vitals and consult a healthcare professional in case of any anomalies. That very same intelligence has been applied to create smartphone-based retinal imaging devices that can be operated by anyone. Better still, these AI-for-Eye devices do not need internet for inferencing and can operate offline in the remotest of locations.
How does AI for eye work?
Unlike Large Language Models that are trained using generic data, the Convolutional Neural Network model uses specific and extensive real-world information. Prospective clinical validations are conducted to ensure its effectiveness beyond test datasets. By collaborating with renowned ophthalmologists and leading institutions, this repository is further enriched to provide AI assistance in screening major causes of blindness.
While this technology is now available, there is a need for collaboration with regulatory authorities, medical bodies, and institutions to develop sustainable models for last-mile screening and testing so that the benefits truly reach every citizen who needs them. For instance, under the ABDM policy, the government is incentivising screening of chronic conditions such as Diabetic Retinopathy and Glaucoma. Technology is an aid here to achieve that goal.
Technological advancements are making it possible to predict cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s through non-invasive retinal imaging!
Eyeing a visually healthy nation: AI can help – this is the potential of medtech
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