AI Becoming Increasingly Important for Eye Care

Artificial intelligence (AI) is leading to unimaginable breakthroughs every industry, but particuarly within healthcare. AI is advancing quickly and is helping to improve several areas of medicine; most recently, the technology has been making waves in ophthalmology, according to GlobalData. 
 
At the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology’s annual confernce this past spring, Verena Health announced the development of Qdata Geographic Atrophy. The offering provides a comprehensive clinical view of real-world data from almost 350,000 de-identified geographic atrophy (GA) patients, allowing Verena Health to identify GA diagnoses from electronic health records and images for research. As Verena Health ingests more ophthalmic images over the coming year, this number will continue to grow. 
 
In addition, Voxeleron, a cloud-based ophthalmic image analysis platform provider, announced the results of a study demonstrating its Orion platform, showing that it delivers higher accuracies and reduced variability compared to original equipment manufacturer software from other companies. The study showed Orion could analyze optical coherence tomography images from other manufacturers and showed greater accuracy with reduced variability, achieving both within a more streamlined workflow.
 
“There is so much potential for AI in healthcare, and companies are starting to realize where to invest their time and money. AI in ophthalmology is important for so many reasons and could be a game changer for many,” GlobalData Medical Device Analyst Alexandra Murdoch said.
 
Additionally, the AI-based diagnostic and screening tools provider, Toku, recently received $8 million in Series A preferred financing to accelerate the development of its AI-powered technologies for retinal imaging. Toku plans to use the financing to commercialize AI-powered technologies that are used to analyse retinal images for biometric markers associated with overall health and the risk of cardiovascular events, stroke, and diabetes. 
 
According to GlobalData forecasts, the total AI market will grow 21.4% annually to reach $383.3 billion in 2030, up from $81.3 billion in 2022. As it stands, North America and Asia Pacific are the leading AI markets, and regulation will likely hold back AI adoption in Western Europe.
 
“Companies all over the globe and in different industries are viewing AI as a disruptive theme. A recent GlobalData poll shows that 49% of respondents believe AI will significantly disrupt their industry, and 25% of respondents believe that disruption has already begun,” Murdoch noted.