Google Enters the World of Eyecare

It will help screen for diabetic retinopathy.

Google will use image-recognition technology to help identify diabetic retinopathy in India, Wired reports.

The search engine giant is collaborating with Aravind Eye Care System, a chain of eye hospitals.

Google said last year that its algorithms were effective at detecting diabetic retinopathy based on photos of the retina. In fact, they performed about as well at the task as ophthalmologists.

The technology was recently tested in a clinical trial in India, and Google now plans a broader implementation there.

According to Wired, Lily Peng of the Google Brain AI research group said the idea is not to replace eye doctors, but to bring screening to areas where it may not be available.

“This kind of blindness is completely preventable,” she said, “but because people can’t get screened, half suffer vision loss before they’re detected.”

Read more at Wired