Google on Thursday said that it has partnered with Indian medtech firms Forus Health and AuroLab to help them eradicate preventable blindness caused by ‘diabetic retinopathy’ using its artificial intelligence (AI) model.
Diabetic retinopathy is a diabetes-related condition that affects the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. If not treated, it can result in vision loss or even blindness.
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About a decade ago, researchers at Google began investigating the potential of AI to screen for diabetic retinopathy, aiming to help prevent blindness through early detection. This eventually led to the first patient screening held in Madurai, India.
“Since then, our diabetic retinopathy AI model has helped support more than 600,000 screenings in clinics around the world. The model supports clinicians with early detection at scale, and in turn, assisting timely medical intervention,” Google said in a blogpost.
The tech giant has licensed this AI model to the medtech firms to support about 6 million AI-assisted screenings for diabetic retinopathy in resource-constrained communities in India over the next 10 years, at no cost to patients.
“Forus Health is thrilled to partner with Google to bring AI-powered diabetic retinopathy screening to the forefront of eye care by leveraging our innovative retinal cameras and platform. We are confident of impacting millions of lives and fulfil our mission of eliminating preventable blindness,” said K.Chandrasekhar, Founder & CEO, Forus Health.
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R.D. Sriram, Managing Director of AuroLab, expressed that witnessing the various phases of Google’s diabetic retinopathy AI model – from development to validation to deployment – has been a remarkable experience.
“At AuroLab, we are hopeful that this AI model will play a crucial role in preventing unnecessary vision loss for millions of people,” he said.
Google also licensed its diabetic retinopathy AI model to healthcare partner Perceptra in Thailand.