Early detection and treatment of eye disorders is vital for maintaining and preserving vision. Fortunately, researchers from Moorfields Eye Hospital and University College London (UCL) Institute of Ophthalmology have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can detect signs of several eye conditions. Learn why they think it’s possible that the RETFound AI program can help save millions of people from disability.*

What is RETFound AI?

RETFound is an artificial intelligence (AI) foundation model for ophthalmology that was developed to detect disease markers for debilitating eye diseases across diverse racial, ethnic, and other demographic groups. 

This used AI tools and infrastructure provided by INSIGHT, the National Health Service’s (NHS)  health data research hub for eye health. INSIGHT is the world’s largest bioresource of data relating to the eye and its diseases.

What can RETFound do?

In an article published in the journal Nature, the researchers explained that the model was trained on 1.6 million retinal images from London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital. In tests, the model not only identified several sight-threatening eye conditions, but also predicted other health challenges that included:

• Heart attacks,
• Stroke, and
• Parkinson’s disease.

“If the U.K. can combine high quality clinical data from the NHS, with top computer science expertise from its universities,” said Professor Pearse Keane, senior author of the article, “it has the true potential to be a world leader in AI-enabled healthcare.”

RETFound’s implications for eye health

Keane and his colleagues believe that their AI model is poised to become the foundation on which all future research into blindness prevention will be built. 

“This is another big step towards using AI to reinvent the eye examination for the 21st century, both in the UK and globally,” he said. “We show several exemplary conditions where RETFound can be used, but it has the potential to be developed further for hundreds of other sight-threatening eye diseases that we haven’t yet explored.”

*Charters, L. (2023, September 14). RETFound: New AI model to detect retinal disease biomarkers developed by Moorfields Eye Hospital.   https://europe.ophthalmologytimes.com/view/retfound-artificial-intelligence-model-to-detect-retinal-disease-biomarkers-developed-by-moorfields-eye-hospital 

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