UMass Medical School and AEYE Health leverage AI to help family doctors screen and refer patients with eye conditions to specialists

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Mar 30, 2021, 10:00 ET

NEW YORK, March 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AEYE Health and UMass Medical School, in collaboration with UMass Memorial Health Care, are developing a system which enables family doctors to screen patients for various retinal conditions and enable timely referrals to specialists.

As part of this effort, AEYE Health's AI will be incorporated into UMass's patient treatment protocols to automatically diagnose various retinal and systemic diseases from digital fundus images obtained at primary care clinics.

According to Shlomit Schaal, MD, PhD, MHCM, Professor and Chair of UMass Medical School's Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences "There are multiple eye diseases that can be detected and treated early to prevent vision loss. Therefore, leveraging the power of AI to promote adherence to screening protocols is nothing less than sight saving. Early detection and intervention are crucial in preventing severe vision loss."

Zack Dvey-Aharon, Ph.D., Co-founder and CEO of AEYE Health said, "We are excited to work with UMass, with the support of the BIRD Foundation, to create a unique system that makes retinal screening accessible and ensures no patient is left behind."

Family physicians know that diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of blindness. "Unfortunately, the challenges of managing diabetes can make it difficult for patients to see specialists to screen for problems that the patient doesn't notice until too late," James Ledwith, MD, PI and Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at UMass. "The use of a compact retinal camera and AEYE Health software in our practice will assure that every patient can be screened during one of their routine visits each year. We anticipate that physicians using this technology are expected to improve screening performance from 30-35% to 80% or more. When one out of four patients with diabetes has retinopathy, primary care screening will result in new vision-saving intervention several times a year."

The partnership is supported by a BIRD Foundation grant which was announced last July.

About UMASS Medical School and UMASS Memorial Health

UMass Medical School was founded in 1962 with the mission to advance the health and wellness of our diverse communities throughout Massachusetts and across the world by leading and innovating in education, research, health care delivery and public service. It is consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the leading medical schools in the nation for primary care education. It is also Massachusetts's first and only public academic health sciences center.

UMass Memorial Health Care is the largest health care system in Central Massachusetts and the clinical partner of UMass Medical School. UMass Memorial Health Care employs 1,700 physicians on active medical staff, 3,000 registered nurses, and over 14,000 total employees.

Visit www.aeyehealth.com to learn more about AEYE Health.

For more information please contact:
Zack Dvey-Aharon, Ph.D., CEO, AEYE Health LLC, [email protected]

SOURCE AEYE Health