The Future of Oculomics: Amplifying the Eye's Role as a Window Into the Body 

The eye serves as a window into whole-body health. 

In 1870, the ophthalmoscope enabled doctors to look inside the eye for the first time, revealing the eye's connection to various health conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. In fact, doctors can detect over 270 chronic conditions and diseases through a comprehensive eye exam, including diabetes, heart disease, and brain tumors. 

Today, recent advancements in imaging technologies, big data, and artificial intelligence are expanding the eye's role in preventative health. 

Startups now apply AI algorithms to retinal scans to detect neurological disorders like Alzheimer's and conduct cardiovascular risk assessments. New research demonstrates how AI can connect retinal changes to even more bodily insights, including kidney disease and female reproductive health. 

In its latest Futurist Report, The Future of Oculomics, the Global Innovation Center explores how advancements in oculomics, the study of the eye as a window to overall health, will expand the scope of care that optometrists can deliver and elevate eye care's role in the broader healthcare continuum. 

Throughout the report, the Global Innovation Center offers a comprehensive look at oculomics, detailing its timeline, the macro forces driving its growth, the technologies and startups exemplifying what's possible in the field, and more. 

The following four key insights emerge from The Future of Oculomics: 

“Oculomics” arrives in 2020, creating a shared language for discovery. “We’ve always known that there are features of systemic health and disease within the back of the eye, but really supercharging that with AI, we’ve uncovered all kinds of signatures. But how do you find that literature, that scientific base? There wasn’t a straightforward way to do so back then,” Siegfried Wagner, Vitreoretinal TSC Fellow at Moorfields Eye Hospital, said. “And so, hence the motivation behind coining the term ‘oculomics ’ was to give a language to that developing area.”  

New technology enables big healthcare data to get even bigger. The introduction of electronic health records (EHRs) and the large amount of data sent by sensors and generated by social media are causing data streams to grow exponentially. This explosion in big data has trickled down to vision care, with optical researchers leveraging millions of retinal-based data sets to discover, validate, and utilize ocular biomarkers for identifying systemic diseases.   

Advancements in AI accelerate key areas of vision care. Over the past few years, researchers have been utilizing machine learning to analyze retinal images for the early detection of systemic diseases. AI has also allowed researchers to discover previously unknown biomarkers, identify patients at higher risk of developing certain conditions, and provide diagnostics to patients in remote areas. Doctors, researchers, and hospitals are also using AI to better organize large volumes of patient data and share it with medical professionals outside of their ecosystems.  

Both providers and patients recognize the importance of health insights from the eye. The Global Innovation Center surveyed over 1,000 patients and 150 providers to capture clinical consumer perspectives on oculomics. Seventy-seven percent of providers surveyed either strongly agreed or agreed that providing health insights beyond eye health can significantly enhance patient care, while 92% of VSP members surveyed either strongly agreed or agreed that eye exams can provide valuable health information beyond just eye health. 

For more about the future of oculomics, check out the full report: 
 https://www.vspvision.com/innovation/futurist-report.html. 

For more vision innovation news and updates, check out the Global Innovation Center's LinkedIn page.