Baljean Dhillon. Photo courtesy of andrewperry.co.uk Edinburgh Innovations

Routine eye tests may be able to predict a person’s risk of dementia thanks to a digital tool developed by data scientists and clinical researchers in partnership with high street opticians. Scientists will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze retinal images and then link it with relevant data on a patient’s demographics, treatment history and pre-existing conditions.

The NeurEYE research team hopes to find patterns that could indicate a person’s risk of developing dementia, as well as giving a broad picture of brain health.

The project—led by the University of Edinburgh with support from Glasgow Caledonian University—has collected almost a million eye scans from opticians across Scotland, forming the world’s largest data set of its kind.

This resource will help develop software which opticians will be able to use as a predictive or diagnostic tool for conditions such as Alzheimer’s. It will also help triage patients and refer them to secondary health services if signs of brain disease are spotted. It could also potentially be used as a way to monitor cognitive decline, experts say.

Identifying people at risk of dementia could also accelerate the development of new treatments by pinpointing those who are more likely to benefit from trials and enabling better monitoring of how they respond to treatment. It could also help individuals and medical professionals modify the risk of developing dementia through lifestyle changes such as physical activity and diet.

“The eye can tell us far more than we thought possible. The blood vessels and neural pathways of retina and brain are intimately related,” said Baljean Dhillon, professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of Edinburgh and NeurEYE co-lead. “But, unlike the brain, we can see the retina with the simple, inexpensive equipment found in every high street in the UK and beyond.”

The data is anonymized and held safely in the Scottish National Safe Haven, which provides a secure platform for the research use of NHS electronic data. This resource is commissioned by Public Health Scotland and hosted by the Edinburgh International Data Facility through EPCC at the University of Edinburgh. Permission to use the data comes from the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care, a part of NHS Scotland.

The project is the second one supported by NEURii, a first-of-its-kind global collaboration between the University of Edinburgh, pharmaceutical company Eisai, Gates Ventures, medical research charity LifeArc and the national health data science institute Health Data Research UK. The research teams are supported by Edinburgh Innovations, the University's commercialization service.

NEURii is giving innovative digital projects the chance to become real world solutions that could benefit millions of patients with neurodegenerative conditions like dementia. The first NEURii project, SCAN-DAN, is using brain scans and AI to predict dementia risk.

“Recent advances in artificial intelligence promise to revolutionize medical image interpretation and disease prediction,” said Miguel Bernabeu, professor of computational medicine at the University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute and NeurEYE co-lead. “However, in order to develop algorithms that are equitable and unbiased, we need to train them on datasets that are representative of the whole population at risk. This dataset, along with decades-long research at University of Edinburgh into ethical AI, can bring a step change in early detection of dementia for all.”

“Harnessing the potential of digital innovations in this way could ultimately save the NHS millions because the hope is that it will speed up the diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative conditions like dementia,” said Dr. Dave Powell, chief scientific officer at LifeArc. “The UK, with its single health care provider, is also well placed to become a global leader in the development of new tests that use health data. This is why we are collaborating to advance promising digital health projects that have the potential to improve millions of lives.”