OptiLens AI: Empowering Patients with Advanced Cataract Diagnosis and Personalized Eye Care

Abstract

Globally, cataracts are among the major causes of blindness. Previously, ophthalmologists used objective lens examination and visual acuity tests, to diagnose cataracts. In general, this method of manual diagnosis has drawbacks in terms of accuracy, inter and intra observer consistency and most importantly, consistency across cases. The current studies incorporate AI and ML to evaluate the digital eye images for the cataract classification and staging with greater objectivity. This paper examines 18 prior studies on how the use of AI in diagnosing cataracts outperforms physicians even without the assistance of the former, which could contribute to the improvement of decision-making services and global patients' accessibility to quality eye care. The prominent obstacles to the establishment of the technology include data privacy, monitoring, and acceptability among the physicians. However, AI has a great potential to help improve precision medicine and individualized treatment of patients with cataracts.