Los Angeles-based digital health company Eyenuk, a leader in real-world applications for artificial intelligence (AI), has received FDA clearance to use the Topcon NW400 retinal camera with its EyeArt AI system to automatically detect diabetic retinopathy.
The approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) adds to the already-cleared use with Canon CR-2 AF and Canon CR-2 Plus AF cameras.
The regulatory clearance of the EyeArt v2.2.0 system makes it the first and only AI system that is FDA-cleared for use with multiple retinal cameras by different manufacturers.
It builds on the EyeArt system’s launch in August 2020 as the first and only AI technology to be cleared by the FDA to detect both mild and vision-threatening DR.
In the European Union, the EyeArt system is the first and only AI system approved under MDR Class IIb to detect DR, age-related macular degeneration, and glaucomatous optic nerve damage, in a single test.
Since its launch in global markets, the EyeArt system has been used by hundreds of clinics to enable safe and reliable eye screening for more than 230,000 patients with diabetes.
Eyenuk founder and CEO, Dr Kaushal Solanki, said he was particularly thrilled about the latest FDA clearance.
“It showcases our extraordinary commitment towards our mission to screen every eye in the world to ensure timely diagnosis of life- and vision-threatening diseases,” he said.
“The EyeArt system can now be used with multiple camera models in the US, which significantly expands access for patients who can be screened in their primary care doctor’s office for preventable blindness due to diabetes.”
This latest FDA clearance for the EyeArt v2.2.0 system is based on clinical data from a prospective multi-centre clinical trial (ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT04984200) that demonstrated exceptional performance for the Topcon NW400 cameras.
It demonstrated 94.4% sensitivity and 91.1% specificity for more than mild DR detection, and 96.8% sensitivity and 91.6% specificity for vision-threatening DR detection.
Additionally, with the latest FDA clearance, the EyeArt system gets an upgraded image quality assessment module and Eyenuk’s proprietary Real-Time Image Quality Feedback solution.
The company said these enhancements improve the EyeArt system’s usability, achieving the best-in-class gradability (ie, percentage of patients with conclusive reports) without the need for dilation.
In the clinical trial, for all camera models (Canon CR-2 AF, Canon CR-2 Plus AF, and Topcon NW400) conclusive EyeArt results were available for 90.4% of cases without needing dilation and for 99% of cases when a small fraction was dilated after the quality feedback solution recommended dilation.
Eyenuk’s head of regulatory and clinical affairs Dr Malavika Bhaskaranand said it was exciting to be bringing several patient- and clinic-friendly product updates to the market.
“Real-Time Image Quality Feedback can significantly improve the clinical workflows associated with diabetic eye exams, and achieving best-in-class gradability implies much better patient experience and saving of clinic staff time that otherwise would have been spent on dilation,” she said.
Eyenuk showcased the newly-cleared EyeArt system at the 83rd Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego on June 23–26.
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