Pearse Keane Provides An Update At Optrafair 20/20 ‘AI And Its Likely Impact On Optometry And Ophthalmology’

Automation is everywhere. Amazon now has more than 100,000 robots inside its warehouses around the world. Driverless cars are being driven in the US and in a couple of months’ time will be tested on a public road near you here in the UK, courtesy of the Government. However, there are sometimes bumps in the road. You might have seen that half the 243 robots in Japan’s “Strange” hotel have been laid off!

A step up from automation is AI (Artificial Intelligence), which is simply technology, from machine learning to natural language processing, that allows machines to sense, comprehend, act and learn. The crucial factor here is that machine-learning algorithms can learn to build other machine-learning systems! But don’t worry, humans are still in control – at least for the foreseeable future.

Machine learning allows computers to study algorithms to perform specific tasks without being given specific instructions, and deep learning allows networks to learn unsupervised from unstructured data. Deep learning is the key here, giving us the ability to use AI in all areas of health care, including eye care.

Back in 2016, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust announced a 5 year partnership with British tech company DeepMind, the world’s leading AI organisation, which had joined forces with Google in 2014 to accelerate their work. The partnership’s aim was to determine if AI could help improve patient care. A breakthrough in their research involved machine learning technology analysing over a million anonymised retinal scans to automatically diagnose eye diseases such as AMD (age-related macular degeneration) and diabetic retinopathy. Crucially, having analysed the scans, the tech is also able to make referral decisions.

Over 50 eye diseases can now be correctly referred via AI with 94% accuracy. In case you’re wondering, this is in line with world class eye experts. The bottom line is that this technology has the potential to recognise eye diseases earlier and prioritise the most serious cases.

Leading the research at Moorfields, the oldest eye hospital in the world, is Pearse Keane. Having graduated to Master of Science and Doctor of Medicine at University College Dublin, Keane is now consultant Ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and NIHR Clinician Scientist at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.

Keane explains:

“The number of eye scans we’re performing is growing at a pace much faster than human experts are able to interpret them. There is a risk that this may cause delays in the diagnosis and treatment of sight-threatening diseases, which can be devastating for patients.

“The AI technology we’re developing is designed to prioritise patients who need to be seen and treated urgently by a doctor or eye care professional. If we can diagnose and treat eye conditions early, it gives us the best chance of saving people’s sight. With further research it could lead to greater consistency and quality of care for patients with eye problems in the future.

“If this technology can be used more widely – in particular by healthcare professionals without computer programming experience – it will really speed up the development of these systems with the potential for significant patient benefits. The process needs refining and regulation, but our results show promise for the future expansion of AI in medical diagnosis.”

Technological change and innovation are the key themes for Optrafair 20/20, which runs from 4 - 6 April 2020 at Birmingham NEC. Optrafair is owned by FMO, whose Chair Andy Yorke and Vice Chair Stuart Burn have secured a host of keynote lectures from industry leaders including Pearse Keane, who has been awarded the inaugural Optrafair Lecture. Other world-renowned speakers will be announced over the next couple of months.

Regarding his lecture, Keane has said:

“I will describe the motivation - and urgent need - to apply deep learning to Optometry and Ophthalmology, the processes required to establish a research collaboration between the NHS and a company like DeepMind, the initial results of our research, and finally, why I believe that Optometry and Ophthalmology could be fundamentally reinvented through the application of artificial intelligence.”

Confirming the importance of the research at Moorfields, Matt Hancock, Health and Social Care Secretary, said:

"This is hugely exciting and exactly the type of technology which will benefit the NHS in the long term and improve patient care”.

Registration for Optrafair 20/20 is now open at optrafair.co.uk/register. We look forward to seeing you at Birmingham NEC at midday on 5 April 2020 for Pearse Keane’s lecture.