AI Summary
An Irish surgeon has developed apps that can verify a person’s age or detect changes in the eyes that may indicate conditions such as brain tumours or irreversible blindness.
SightTrack, one of ophthalmic surgeon Dr Kate Coleman’s apps, can detect in seconds any slight changes in the pattern of blood vessels in the optic nerve in the centre of each person’s eye.
SightTrack uses artificial intelligence (AI) to examine photographs of a person’s retina.
While these are generally done by an ophthalmologist using an ophthalmoscope, advances in technology now mean they can also be done by most high street chemists or opticians.
Glaucoma is not usually detected until a person has already lost up to about 25% of their eyesight. In general, this and other undetected eye conditions can cause irreversible blindness in less than 10 years, despite being preventable.
Once changes are spotted, a more detailed review of a person’s eyesight by eye specialists like optometrists or ophthalmologists would then be undertaken to find out why the pattern changed.