Google’s DeepMind Will Help Spot Eye Based Diseases

Several months ago we reported about how Google was going to use their DeepMind artificial intelligence to study millions of NHS records. It would seem that Google isn’t done supporting the advancement of medicine with DeepMind as it seeks to help spot common eye diseases earlier than we traditionally could.

The five-year research project sees the division behind DeepMind working with NHS’s Moorfields Eye Hosptial to help create a system where people’s eye scans could be automatically searched for common eye based diseases. The new project will use a million eye scans (all anonymous) to help create a system which could spot everything from diabetic retinopathy to age-related muscle degeneration.

With millions using their sight every year, Google states that up to 98% of people who lose their sight due to diabetes could have it saved if they catch it early and start treatment. The idea is that the new system could help free up doctors who would, after years of training, spend time checking the eye scans for common signs of sight loss.

The new project could see thousands of people have their eyesight saved because of the new AI picking up and recommending a course of treatment in time and with the project using purely anonymous data then there is little to no chance that people could be identified by the data being used.