A Rose Hill-based company is taking a shot at decentralizing the shrinking field of ophthalmology.
AI Optics, a biotech startup backed by NYU Langone and raising in stealth, announced clearance this week from the Food and Drug Administration for the imaging component of its handheld retinal scanner, which the company says could put a digital ophthalmologist in every doctor and clinician’s office. Along with its other half, an AI diagnostics software that has yet to be cleared, the company believes the device can eliminate the need for specialist visits for many people at risk of vision impairment.
There is a huge demand for eye exams in the United States and a diminishing group of eye doctors to perform them. Doctors recommend seniors and people with diabetes, both growing groups, get regular eye checks, including detailed retinal scans, to catch conditions that could lead to blindness. Roughly a quarter of the 38 million Americans with diabetes have diabetic retinopathy, a degenerative eye disease that must be caught earlier in order to prevent vision loss.
Currently, those scans are mostly done using specialized equipment found in an ophthalmologist’s office, for which many insurance carriers require a referral, meaning greater expense and time spent by the patient. Those appointments are expected to get harder to make. The number of ophthalmologists is projected to decline by 12% between 2020 and 2035, while demand is expected to rise 24%, according to a 2024 study published in the journal, Ophthalmology.
“The onus is on the patient and that’s where the drop off happens,” said Luke Moretti, the company’s co-founder and CEO.
With FDA clearance for the scanning device, the company hopes to soon make it available in primary care offices and other patient settings, bypassing the need for a specialist in many cases. But to make the vision complete, the company still needs the go-ahead for the built-in computer that will read the images. The program is part of a growing field of artificial intelligence systems being trained on human data to help doctors diagnose diseases. Together, Moretti and his backers hope to make it possible for any clinician to perform retinal scans relatively cheaply wherever they see patients.
The company has been raising capital behind closed doors since it was founded in 2020, bringing in more than $10 million with the first major seed round led by NYU Langone Health Ventures, the health system’s venture capital arm, Moretti said. As part of the relationship, Moretti has a deal with NYU Langone to commercialize the tech, the terms of which have not been disclosed.
