DeepMind will be developing an AI based Scanning Method to detect Eye Diseases
To help doctors in detecting more than 50 eye diseases, DeepMind will be developing a product to detect sight-threatening conditions from a common eye scan. Deep Mind is an artificial intelligence company based in London and owned by Alphabet.
According to a study that has been published in Nature Medicine, the DeepMind trained artificial intelligence software will be able to detect the eye diseases better than the doctors. The eye scans that use artificial intelligence could be very useful in detecting eye diseases and prevent loss of sight. The technology could detect sight-threatening eye diseases quickly which will ensure that patients do not need to wait in case of urgent treatment.
DeepMind in partnership with London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital and the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology plan to conduct trials based on this technology in 2019.
If they achieve success then DeepMind would go in for a regulator approved product which Moorfields could market in the UK. This would be the first software of Deep Mind AI algorithm that makes use of machine learning in a healthcare product. If they get the approval, then the clinicians at Moorfields would use it free of cost across 30 UK hospitals and clinics for a period of five years.
DeepMind Health Care Product
DeepMind will use its trained artificial intelligence program on 15,000 patients and will use optical coherence tomography (OCT) to detect any signs of eye disease. OCT is an imaging technique that gives 3D images of the rear of the eye by using light waves.
Although OCT scans are used to detect eye diseases, it is difficult for the clinicians to interpret and can be done so only by experts.
On the other hand, the technology adopted by DeepMind will be able to detect eye diseases directly from the OCT scan in a matter of seconds. The patients in urgent need of care can be treated immediately as there is no wastage of time between the scan taken and the treatment to be administered.
The DeepMind AI technology combines two neural networks such as segmentation and classification. In the first analysis, the OCT scan shows the entire eye tissue as well as the features of the disease. The second step analyses the eye tissue image and enables the clinicians with the diagnosis and a recommendation.
The DeepMind trained AI technology will need to undergo trials. If they get regulatory approval, then the technology could be used for different types of eye scanners and not only for the purpose that it was trained at Moorfields.
DeepMind is confident that the trained AI technology could be a ground-breaking path in the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases.
DeepMind was bought by Google in 2014 and since then they have been expanding into gaming and healthcare. In 2015, they partnered with Royal Free teaching Hospital in London and worked on an app called Streams which alerts the clinicians to acute kidney injury.
DeepMind used machine learning to radiotherapy planning for head and neck cancer in 2016. Deep Mind also used its machine learning to improve the detection of breast cancer.
