By Steven J. Koufos
June 6, 2018
Artificial intelligence is on its way to becoming an essential tool of the optometrist in detecting and diagnosing eye disease.
Emery Huber, OD, a therapeutic optometrist and optometric glaucoma specialist in Grand Prairie, Texas, is using AI to detect risks factors in causes of blindness, eye disease and vision impairment during an eye exam. The significance of this has big implications.
An estimated 253 million people live with vision impairment, globally, according to the World Health Organization. Over 80 percent of all vision impairment can be prevented, or treated, if diagnosed early. Uncorrected refractive errors and un-operated cataracts are the top two causes of vision impairment. Un-operated cataracts remain the leading cause of blindness in low- and middle-income countries. Approximately 80 million people have glaucoma, and it’s the second-leading cause of blindness in the world.
Click HERE, or the image above, to see how one practice uses the AI multi-diagnostic system Visionix VX130+.
More Americans are facing the reality of eye disease than ever before. According to a report by Prevent Blindness America and the National Eye Institute, Americans ages 40 and older with vision impairment and blindness has increased dramatically since 2000.
Now more than 3 million Americans are living with glaucoma. Some studies have shown that perhaps half of people living with glaucoma aren’t aware they have the disease. Regular eye exams are needed for proper diagnosis and treatment to prevent damage to the optic nerve and loss of sight.
“I believe I have the best AI multi-diagnostic technology in the world to instantly detect risks factors in causes of blindness, eye disease and vision impairment during an eye exam. I offer this as a normal screening process in my routine eye exams with the VX130+,” says Dr. Huber, who uses an AI multi-diagnostic system made by Luneau Technology called the Visionix VX130+.
The AI technology is fully automatic, and completes a full anterior and posterior analysis of the cornea, and up to 10 diagnostic tests in about 90 seconds. It instantly detects refractive errors and risk factors for glaucoma, cataracts, keratoconus and other ocular surface diseases such as dry eye.
When describing what the AI does in the VX130+, Marc Abitbol, MD, PhD, president & CEO of Luneau Technology and founder of Visionix notes, “We have developed warnings based on AI using the fact that the VX130 is a unique multi-sensory platform which allows fusion of a lot of data. AI was a very good choice to make our software very precise.”
The VX130+ is currently available for sale from Luneau Technology USA at www.luneautechusa.com or 1-800-729-1959.
Steven J. Koufos is the president and CEO of Spartan Vision Care Consulting. To contact him: skoufos@spartanvcc.com
