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Announcing DeepMind Health Research Partnership with Moorfields Eye Hospital

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eyeby Angela Guess

A new release out of Google DeepMind Health states, “We founded DeepMind to make the world a better place by developing technologies that help address some of society’s toughest challenges. So we’re excited to announce our first medical research project with an NHS Trust. We’ll be working with Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, one of the world’s leading eye hospitals with a 200 year track record in clinical care, research and education. This collaboration came about when Pearse Keane, a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields, contacted DeepMind to explore how we could work together on two specific conditions that cause sight loss: diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Together, these affect more than 625,000 people in the UK and over 100 million people worldwide.”

The announcement continues, “Diabetes is on the rise. It’s estimated that 1 in 11 of the world’s adult population are affected. It’s also the leading cause of blindness in the working age population – if you’re diabetic you are 25 times more likely to suffer some kind of sight loss. Early detection and treatment can prevent 98% of severe visual loss resulting from diabetes – but that doesn’t always happen. Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the commonest cause of blindness in the UK. Every single day – in the UK alone – nearly 200 people lose sight from the severe, blinding form of this condition and globally the number of people with AMD is set to rise to nearly 200m by 2020. By allowing earlier detection and treatment of AMD, machine learning has the potential to help save the sight of many of these people.”

Read more at Google DeepMind.

Photo credit: Flickr/ robmcbell

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