Artificial intelligence (AI) is a prominent theme in every industry, but especially within the medical field. AI is advancing quickly and is helping to improve several areas of healthcare. Most recently, AI is making waves in ophthalmology, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
The annual conference of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology is taking place from April 23-27, at which Verena Health intends to announce the development of Qdata Geographic Atrophy. The offering provides a comprehensive clinical view of real-world data from almost 350,000 de-identified geographic atrophy (GA) patients, allowing Verena Health to identify GA diagnoses from electronic health records and images for research. As Verena Health ingests more ophthalmic images over the coming year, this number will continue to grow.
In addition, Voxeleron, a cloud-based ophthalmic image analysis platform provider, announced the results of a study demonstrating its Orion platform, showing that it delivers higher accuracies and reduced variability compared to original equipment manufacturer software from other companies. The study showed Orion could analyze optical coherence tomography images from other manufacturers and showed greater accuracy with reduced variability, achieving both within a more streamlined workflow.
Alexandra Murdoch, Medical Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “There is so much potential for AI in healthcare, and companies are starting to realize where to invest their time and money. AI in ophthalmology is important for so many reasons and could be a game changer for many.”
Additionally, the AI-based diagnostic and screening tools provider, Toku, recently received $8m in Series A preferred financing to accelerate the development of its AI-powered technologies for retinal imaging. Toku plans to use the financing to commercialize AI-powered technologies that are used to analyse retinal images for biometric markers associated with overall health and the risk of cardiovascular events, stroke, and diabetes.
According to GlobalData forecasts, the total AI market will be worth $383.3 billion in 2030, up from $81.3 billion in 2022, having grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.4%. As it stands, North America and Asia Pacific are the leading AI markets, and regulation will likely hold back AI adoption in Western Europe.
Murdoch concludes: “Companies all over the globe and in different industries are viewing AI as a disruptive theme. A recent GlobalData poll shows that 49% of respondents believe AI will significantly disrupt their industry, and 25% of respondents believe that disruption has already begun.”
