Hospital.Help

Berlin, September 2024 – Artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise in ophthalmology. It’s not just that optical stores in Germany have recently started offering eye checks using AI based on the Swiss model. Ophthalmologists also have apps available that use AI to quickly analyze images of the retina and optic nerve. Professor Dr. explains how algorithms optimize diagnostics and treatment decisions. med. Nicole Eter from the German Ophthalmological Society eV (DOG) at the advance press conference on the occasion of the annual congress.

In India, where there is a shortage of ophthalmologists, people with diabetes can have themselves examined for retinopathy, a typical secondary disease of the retina, in shopping centers; In Switzerland this is also possible in optician shops. The first opticians in Germany are now offering an eye check for diabetic retinopathy based on a retinal photo, a funduscopy – for a fee. “However, I don’t see a big market for this at the moment,” says Nicole Eter, director of the ophthalmology clinic at Münster University Hospital. “People with diabetes can still get appointments with their ophthalmologists here.”

Nevertheless: The new service shows where the journey is going – AI is conquering ophthalmology in big steps. The DOG expert sees a lot of potential, for example, in apps that ophthalmologists can download for a fee from medical device manufacturers in order to have complex imaging analyzed. “AI makes sense wherever imaging is involved,” emphasizes Eter. “I could imagine that AI will soon regularly support the interpretation of retinal and optic nerve imaging, i.e. the evaluation of optical coherence tomography and fluorescein angiography.”

AI thus helps to diagnose and assess common diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma and diabetes-related retinopathy – and ultimately also to make treatment decisions. “In the case of glaucoma, for example, AI can use images to determine the nerve fiber layer thickness and thus the individual course of the disease very precisely,” explains Eter. In this way, you can find out early on that the intraocular pressure is not well controlled, so that you can consequently increase the drop therapy, initiate laser treatment or an operation. With AMD, AI also makes it possible to optimize treatment intervals by analyzing the image data. “The AI ​​recognizes how urgent the injections are based on the retinal thickness, the structures and the fluid distribution in the eye,” explains the DOG expert.

The examples demonstrate how comprehensive AI support can be for ophthalmologists. However, there are still massive obstacles to the use of many AI apps in this country. “We are not allowed to upload patient data to a cloud,” explains Eter. The ophthalmologist hopes that the problem can soon be avoided – for example by downloading applications locally. In any case, solutions are needed quickly. “AI is currently revolutionizing the way eye diseases are diagnosed and treated,” emphasizes Eter. “Germany shouldn’t be left out.”

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