Using AI to Detect Eye Inflammation: A Promising Future for Eye Disease Detection
Uveitis is an inflammatory eye disease that primarily affects young adults and accounts for 5–20% of legal blindness cases in Europe and the United States, in addition to imposing significant socioeconomic burdens.
The IMAGIN-AIR project aims to develop an AI-based medical tool capable of analyzing retinal images obtained through fluorescein angiography (FA) – a technique that highlights abnormal blood vessel growth and other retinal conditions – to identify and grade key signs of retinal inflammation, such as vascular leakage, capillary leakage, macular edema, and optic disc hyperfluorescence.
Grading retinal inflammation is a time-consuming process that requires experienced specialists. However, the performance of the automated model has proven to be comparable to the assessments of three independent experts.
Building on results from a previous study on the same topic, the use of large scale pretrained vision transformers could become essential in advancing not only uveitis care but also the diagnosis and monitoring of other retinal conditions.[1]
The team working on the project is interdisciplinary: on one side Dr. André Anjos and his research group at Idiap, represented by Dr. Oscar Jiménez and Roberto Pulvirenti; on the other side Dr. Med. Florence Hoogewoud, ophthalmologist and project co-lead; Mattia Tommasoni, lead data scientist and head of the Research in Ophthalmology (RIO) group, with Victor Amiot, data scientist at The Jules Gonin Eye Hospital.
The potential clinical applications of the aimed technology are substantial. By automating the grading process, the AI system could streamline ophthalmologists’ workflows, enabling faster and more consistent diagnoses, while also supporting timely interventions, improving treatment planning, and personalizing patient care.
The project, conducted within Idiap’s “AI for Life” research program, includes PhD funding for a female researcher, who will receive specialized AI training and technology development and play an integral role in achieving the project’s objectives.
Interested in pushing the research further? Apply here: PhD Position in Medical AI (Switzerland)