The most notable technological advancements are usually those that occur in consumer electronics, as they are most visible to consumers. But the most important are not always those, but those related to medicineby enabling improvements in the quality of life, even with devices and programs that normally do not come out of institutions and laboratories.
Exceptionally, advances are produced in research centers that have an impact both inside and outside them, as is the case. In the Open University of Catalonia two researchers, Igor García and Francisca Villanueva, have created an application capable of early detection of eye diseases that can lead to blindness.
This application is currently under development, but it is oriented both for use by health professionals and patients, explain García and Villanueva to EL ESPAÑOL – El Androide Libre. They seek, they explain, to improve the treatment of some of these diseases, which some progress in monitoring certain diseases.
Neural networks and algorithms
begIA uses deep learn ing and neural networks
The application is designed to detect different types of eye diseases that may cause blindness in patients. Specifically, you can currently discern whether a person has principles of glaucoma, retinopathy diabetic oh waterfallsthree of the most common causes of vision loss.
The system works on the basis of neural networks and algorithms trained with tens of thousands of images of patients already suffering from retinopathy, glaucoma or cataracts to provide an initial diagnosis which, if positive, refers the patient to a specialist. This is a step up from the current need to perform fundus examination to detect these diseases, which is feasible in developed countries, but not in other parts of the world.
The most important selfie
The operation of the application, for users, is simple, since Just take a selfie with your mobile, as we usually do, although obviously closer so that the eye is as well defined as possible. García also insists that “there is no limit to be able to use the applicationbut what is certain is that the higher the resolution of the image taken, the more accurate the diagnosis that the application will give”. This implies that the higher the resolution of the image, the more the smartphone will put time to analyze it, but this will not prevent the diagnosis, it will only slightly increase the waiting time.
Although begIA is primarily designed to be used in areas where access to health care is not easy, we wonder if it is possible to think that it could be used in countries like Europe to improve medical care related to eye diseases. “Anyone who, for economic or geographical reasons, does not think it is worth the effort of spending money or taking a long trip for minor ailments could use this app,” says García. In this way, they would have access to a quick and inexpensive diagnosis, without having to travel.
As is logical, a fundus examination will always be more accurate than the results this application can show, but the important thing, according to the researcher, is that begIA offers “the ability to alert citizens that something is wrong with their eye health”. The app is able to “minimize false negatives”.
First on Android
This application was designed in Europe, and for this reason the researchers chose to create on Android first, since it is the operating system with the most penetration in our country. The idea is to try to target the widest possible audience, and in our market Android has a big advantage over other systems.
Eye diseases are often related to the age of patients, being more normal in older people than in younger people, although of course this is not always the case. In Europe, older people tend to use simpler devices, and that’s where Android comes in because there’s a much larger catalog.
However, the researcher does not specify that “with the current functionalities, it could work on any smartphone”. This opens the door to development for iOS devices.
a bright future
We currently use phones for tasks that were unthinkable thirty years ago, such as recording high-resolution videos, communicating by satellite, guiding us by GPS… It is very likely that in the future actions related to health and medicine will also go through these devices.in addition to others like smartwatches.
We wanted to ask Igor García directly if it was possible to think that in the medium term, begIA could be used directly by patients to take care of their visual health in the same way that bracelets or smartwatches are currently used to measure cardiac parameters. The answer gives hope: “It’s an idea. The app could open every time we get out of bed or when we turn on the mobile and run diagnostics automatically”.
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