Eyenuk Completes 60,000-Patient Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Contract with UK Public Health England Using EyeArt AI Platform

According to Leiphone, Eyenuk, a U.S.-based real-time AI eye screening company, recently announced the completion of its contract with Public Health England (PHE). Its EyeArt AI ophthalmic screening system has completed six diabetic retinopathy screening programs under the UK’s National Health Service, screening a total of 60,000 patients.

Public Health England (PHE), an executive agency of the UK Department of Health and Social Care (DH), is responsible for overseeing and implementing screening programs within the National Health Service (NHS). In a recent bid for retinal screening projects, Eyenuk secured a contract for 60,000 screenings, leveraging its advantages in cost-effectiveness and sensitivity.

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a vision-threatening complication of diabetes and a leading cause of blindness worldwide.

The United Kingdom has consistently placed a high priority on diabetic retinopathy screening, conducting annual fundus examinations for 2.5 million patients with diabetes. This represents a relatively high coverage rate, as in other countries, fewer than half of the diabetic population undergoes annual fundus screening.

However, there are now 4.6 million people in the UK with diabetes, a figure that has doubled compared to 20 years ago. One-third of these patients are at risk of diabetic retinopathy. The rising number of diabetic patients is posing increasing challenges to the NHS’s diabetic retinopathy screening program.

This screening program was previously managed independently by Moorfields Eye Hospital, specifically utilizing AI to pre-screen 60,000 patients with fundus conditions. The AI prioritized and flagged problematic fundus images and provided information such as the number of hemorrhage points, after which ophthalmologists manually graded these fundus lesions.

Leifeng.com has learned that previous evaluation results indicated that the EyeArt system demonstrates good sensitivity and specificity for the preliminary screening of diabetic patients.

Dr. Kaushal Solanki, Founder and CEO of Eyenuk, stated, “Eyenuk is honored to have completed the contract for the diabetic retinopathy grading and screening program with Public Health England. Our EyeArt AI system has achieved strong and outstanding results across all six DES projects in the UK. Looking ahead, we aim to expand our services in the UK to support more diabetic eye screening initiatives.”

Moorfields Eye Hospital’s independent health technology assessment (HTA), involving over 60,000 patients with diabetes, demonstrated that the EyeArt AI system exhibits high sensitivity in diabetic retinopathy screening and offers superior cost-effectiveness compared to other automated diabetic retinopathy screening technologies. Furthermore, unlike manual grading methods, EyeArt’s performance is not influenced by race, gender, or fundus camera type.

EyeArt AI Ophthalmic Screening System, developed with funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and validated by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), has obtained CE marking in the European Union and licensing from Health Canada; however, its current regulatory clearance permits its use solely for screening purposes.

Once a patient’s fundus images are captured and submitted to the EyeArt AI system, diabetic retinopathy (DR) screening results are available in a PDF report within 60 seconds. The product’s screening capabilities cover diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, stroke risk, cardiovascular risk, and Alzheimer’s disease. Leiphone(Official Account: Leiphone)

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