Exploring the real-world impact of artificial intelligence in diabetic retinopathy screening.
Diabetes is becoming a global epidemic; the number of people affected worldwide has risen from 108 million in 1980 to an estimated 463 million in 2019, with an estimated 700 million by 2045 (1). Diabetic retinopathy (DR) and its sight-threatening effects are expected to sharply rise along with the increasing population of diabetics. DR is already one of the leading causes of blindness in the working age group. Establishing robust DR screening programs, as achieved during the last two decades in the UK, has been shown to be effective in tackling this growing issue (2); however, the current model of DR screening is prohibitively expensive for all but a few highly developed countries.
