Hidden in plain sight – retinal imaging data for early detection/ prevention of systemic diseases and disease-agnostic augmentation of drug discovery R&D with AI

Status: This talk is in preparation - details may change

Recent advances in ophthalmology have shown that retinal images can detect much more than ocular disorders. Retinal imaging can identify early signs of systemic diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, and cardiovascular (heart) conditions, often years before traditional symptoms appear. This emerging field, known as Oculomics, shows the eye’s potential as a window into overall health.

Charity-owned Foresight Research Ltd. aims to collect community-level, pre-disease data from hundreds-of-thousands participants, through a UK-wide network of optical practices. Through collaborations with national health research initiatives, they plan to build comprehensive datasets from early-stage and healthy participants – and make these accessible for industry and academic researchers working on healthcare innovation (biomedical, AI, health economics, etc.). These datasets will be fundamental for enabling prevention and early interception of various ocular and systemic diseases.