Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in 20-74-year-olds in the US but many people with diabetes don’t realize that they are at risk until it’s too late! According to my ophthalmologist colleagues, diabetic retinopathy is preventable and even reversible if it’s caught early.

I had a National Library of Medicine (NLM)-funded project that used AI/ML (artificial intelligence/machine learning) on electronic health record data to identify patients in a medically underserved/safety net setting at risk for diabetic retinopathy. This was a collaboration between biomedical informaticians and ophthalmologists.

Our project’s focus was on identifying diabetic retinopathy risk in diabetic patients who had not come in for a guideline-recommended annual eye exam. The NLM made a ~3-minute documentary about the project, which is so exciting! NLM video from YouTube below: