Dr. Judy Kim Discusses Artificial Intelligence in Ophthalmology

Judy E. Kim, MD is an internationally well-known vitreoretinal specialist and a Professor of Ophthalmology with tenure at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Kim was the honorable guest speaker of the October Vision Seminar and discussed the interesting topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in ophthalmology.

From the back of the eye to the front, AI is expected to give future ophthalmologists new automated tools for diagnosing and treating ocular diseases. This transformation is being driven in part by a recent surge in attention to AI’s medical potential from big players in the digital world like Google and IBM. Dr. Kim is a consultant to several companies that are currently competing in the field of retinal automatic image analysis.

She discussed the promise of automated screening of diabetic patients for the presence of diabetic retinopathy in primary care offices using the newly FDA approved IDx algorithm that automatically identified which patients to refer to ophthalmologists and which patients have no diabetic retinopathy.

She also discussed several upcoming promising technologies, including home based Optical Coherence Topography (OCT) with automatic alert system that alerts doctors when their patients have changes in their retinal scans. “I prefer to see the future of ophthalmology as using Assistance Intelligence, which means that ophthalmologists will have better access to intelligent diagnostic tools, but I do not believe ophthalmologists can be replaced as caregivers”.