Woodland Hills-based Eyenuk Inc., a producer of artificial intelligence eye-screening technology, is partnering with Vision Loss Rehabilitation Canada (VLRC) on a program that will bring its diabetic eye-screening technology to rural, remote and Indigenous populations in Northern and Eastern Ontario, Canada.
According to VLRC, 750,000 people in Canada have diabetic retinopathy, the most common form of diabetic eye disease. The economic impact of the disease on the Canadian healthcare system is $1.2 billion annually, making early detection and care essential.
Eyenuk’s EyeArt AI Eye Screening System is the first autonomous AI technology licensed by Health Canada, the country’s government health care agency, for the detection of diabetic retinopathy. The system autonomously analyzes a patient’s retinal photos, detects signs of disease and creates a report in less than 30 seconds, compared to a traditional screening, which can take days or weeks to complete.
“Prior to launching this program, individuals in rural and remote Ontario communities would potentially have to drive two to three hours for an appointment and wait up to two weeks to receive results,” Josie McGee, VLRC’s vice president of healthcare innovation, said in a statement. “Now, we can deliver screening results in less than 30 seconds within a client’s own community. It’s a true game-changer.”
Eyenuk has expanded the use of its eye-screening system through multiple partnerships in the last year or so that brought it to places such as South Africa, Germany and Vietnam. The company has also focused on securing financing Last July the company announced $6.2 million in financing to accelerate the development of its eye-screening system.