STAT Plus: Google develops AI to identify patients at high risk of blindness

Artificial intelligence has shown an increasing ability to detect and diagnose eye diseases by analyzing medical images. Now a new system developed by Google and British doctors takes a significant leap forward by predicting which patients with a common condition are most likely to lose their sight.

The new AI, described in a paper published Monday in the journal Nature, is designed to predict imminent risk of total vision loss in patients with age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in the developed world. The paper reports that the computer outperformed most eye specialists in determining which patients