Press release from INSIGHT
The ARI grant will allow Professor Keane and his research group at UCL’s Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields to further their pioneering work on medical artificial intelligence (AI) models using retinal images to detect early signs of eye conditions and systemic disease.
Professor Keane joins the ranks of many distinguished scientists that have been recognized by the ARI over the past 40 years for their notable contributions to vision science. We are excited about the potential of RETFound-L to drive significant advancements in eye care and further our understanding of how AI can empower clinicians and researchers.
Chief Scientific Officer, Head of R&D and ARI Executive for Alcon, Franck Leveiller
In September 2023, Professor Keane’s group published the world’s first AI foundation model for ophthalmology in the journal Nature. Trained on more than 1.6 million retinal images from Moorfields Eye Hospital and a small proportion of publicly available data, the complex system can accurately detect eye disease and predict the risk of systemic health conditions on diverse populations. RETFound can be fine-tuned for a diverse range of healthcare applications, and was made open source to advance global research into preventable blindness.
With the ARI funding, the group will embark on a project to develop RETFound-L, an enhanced AI system that brings together vision and large-language model approaches.
Development of RETFound-L will be supported by INSIGHT, the world’s largest ophthalmic imaging bioresource.
Like its predecessor, the intention is to make RETFound-L open source and available to other researchers for non-commercial use, fostering global collaboration in the fight against blindness, and aligning with the ARI’s goal of expanding the frontiers of vision sciences worldwide.