Identifying those at risk of dementia could accelerate the development of new treatments. Pictured above is Baljean Dhillon, a professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of Edinburgh and NeurEYE co-lead. [Photo courtesy of the University of Edinburgh/Edinburgh Innovations]
The University of Edinburgh, with Glasgow Caledonian University, lead the NeurEYE research team. The team has collected nearly 1 million eye scans from opticians across Scotland to form what they say is the world’s largest data set of its kind.
Using AI and machine learning the NeurEYE team plans to analyze image data linked to relevant demographics, treatment history and pre-existing conditions. The anonymized data allows researchers to find patterns that could indicate a person’s risk of developing dementia. Additionally, the data could provide a broad picture of brain health.
NeurEYE received permission to use the data from the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care, a part of NHS Scotland. NEURii, a global collaboration between Eisai, Gates Ventures, the University of Edinburgh, the medical research charity LifeArc and the national health data science institute Health Data Research UK, funds and supports the project.
“The eye can tell us far more than we thought possible,” Baljean Dhillon, professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of Edinburgh and NeurEYE co-lead, said in a news release. “The blood vessels and neural pathways of retina and brain are intimately related. But, unlike the brain, we can see the retina with the simple, inexpensive equipment found in every high street in the UK and beyond.”
Optometrists can use the software subsequently developed as a predictive or diagnostic tool for conditions like Alzheimer’s as well. They could use it to triage patients to secondary health services and as a way to monitor cognitive decline, too.
Identifying those at risk of dementia could accelerate the development of new treatments. This could help pinpoint those more likely to benefit from trials and enabling better monitoring of treatment responses. Additionally, disease awareness helps individuals and medical professionals modify the risk through lifestyle changes, the university says.
Professor of Computational Medicine at the Usher Institute and NeurEYE co-lead Miguel Bernabeu said: “Recent advances in artificial Intelligence promise to revolutionise medical image interpretation and disease prediction. However, in order to develop algorithms that are equitable and unbiased, we need to train them on datasets that are representative of the whole population at risk. This dataset, along with decades-long research at University of Edinburgh into ethical AI, can bring a step change in early detection of dementia for all.”
