NEW PRODUCT APPLICATIONS

Improving Screening for Diabetic Retinopathy

Eyenuk Inc.’s EyeArt 2.0 software offers greater than 90% sensitivity and specificity

BY KAREN APPOLD, CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Eyenuk Inc.’s EyeArt 2.0 detects critical diabetic retinopathy (DR) in patients that require intervention. It delivers fully automated DR screening, including imaging, grading, and reporting in accordance with internationally recognized standards with sensitivity more than 90%.

DR affects approximately 30% of the 415 million diabetic patients worldwide. Studies show that in more than 90% of cases, early diagnosis can prevent vision loss. However, “the current number of eye care professionals cannot keep pace with the demand for annual screening, making DR the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults in the industrialized world,” says Kaushal Solanki, chief executive officer, Eyenuk Inc., Woodland Hills, CA. “Experts have recognized that the only feasible way to address this issue is to efficiently expand DR screening via computerized analysis, such as EyeArt.”

EyeArt can identify patients at risk before severe vision loss happens, so they can be monitored and treated earlier, says Ben Szirth, PhD, director, Applied Vision Research & Ophthalmic Telemedicine, The Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, who was prompted to try EyeArt software because manually grading images is time consuming and subjective.

A MONUMENTAL ACHIEVEMENT

EyeArt is the first completely automated system to achieve more than 90% in both sensitivity and specificity in detecting referable DR. A recent study of the EyeArt technology presented at EASDec 2016 demonstrated 91% sensitivity for detecting referable DR patients at a specificity of 90.8%. The robust study encompassed 469,953 real-world, color retinal fundus images from 59,005 consecutive diabetic patient visits captured by EyePACS — a telescreening system. In addition, EyeArt demonstrated 98.3% sensitivity in identifying potentially treatable patients with severe non-proliferative or proliferative DR, and/or the presence of surrogate markers for clinically significant macular edema. “What this means is that for every 10,000 patients screened, EyeArt misses only 1.6 patients with potentially treatable DR, on average,” Solanki says.

In commenting, Dr. Szirth says, “EyeArt’s high sensitivity assures us that patients flagged as not having a referable condition have a low risk of vision loss within one year, before their next annual screening.”

HOW IT WORKS

The software is compatible with table-top fundus cameras and computer setups commonly used in an eye care practice. To use the software, an eye care professional takes images of the patient’s retina using a fundus camera and inputs them into EyeArt. Then, the software instantaneously and automatically grades and reports the screening results — identifying critical patients.

EyeArt allows all DR screening to be performed in the office, in a single visit, without the inconvenience of sending images for outside grading. Patients can obtain their test results at the imaging visit.

The software user interface is simple and intuitive. “In just a few minutes, my medical staff was trained in how to use EyeArt and became autonomous almost immediately, freeing me to focus on patient care,” Dr. Szirth says.

ATTRIBUTES ABOUND

For the very first time, EyeArt enables retinal physicians and telemedicine programs to have access to true, fully automated screening. Currently, no software is available that comprehensively provides the same capability.

Another unique feature is that EyeArt technology can grade in accordance with multiple internationally recognized standards, such as the United Kingdom’s National Health Service Diabetic Eye Screening Programme and the International Clinical Diabetic Retinopathy Disease Severity Scale. “This means that its reporting can be objectively compared with commonly-accepted reporting, making it easy for retinal physicians to put the results into context,” Dr. Solanki says.

“Diabetes is rising at alarming rates. Managing the disease will become even more critical to insuring quality of life,” Dr. Szirth concludes. “Automated analysis is the future of diabetic eye disease screenings.” RP