Nikon joins Verily to enhance vision diagnosis technology

The strategic partnership between Verily (formerly known as Google Life Sciences) and Nikon’s retinal imaging arm Optos, will collaborate on machinelearning capabilities in diagnosing two of the leading diabetes-related conditions that cause blindness – diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic macular oeda (DME).Nikon president Mr. Kazuo Ushida said that the partnership will allow Nikon to leverage its optical technologies into the medical industry and the alliance would create a “world class retina player.”{{quote-A:R-W:450-I:2-Q: The partnership will allow Nikon to leverage its optical technologies into the medical industry and the alliance would create a “world class retina player. -WHO:Mr. Kazuo Ushida, President of Nikon}}Verily will apply its advanced software technology and Optos will use its core-imaging capabilities, such as the Optomap retinal imaging platform. Optomap can capture around 80% of the retina in a single image and coverage of no less than 200 degrees.Nikon ventured into the medical sector in 2015 when it acquired UK-based Optos for $400 million. At the time Optos was reported to have captured a 30 per cent share of the global retinal imaging market, a large portion being in North America.This development is also seen as an opportunity to increase the success rate of eye care practitioners and specialists in the treatment of vision-related issues by either slowing down eye damage progression among diabetics.A report from the World Health Organisation revealed that diabetes is one of the major causes of blindness worldwide. It has also become a worsening health issue around the world, especially among low and middle-income countries.The Global Burden of Disease Study for 2010 published in Septber 2016 by the Nova Southeastern University College of Optometry reported that DR was responsible for one in 36 cases of blindness and one in 52 cases of visual impairment for the said period.According to the study, the period 1990 to 2010 worldwide saw the number of DR-induced blindness cases increase by 27% while DRinduced visual impairment also went up by 64%.During the second half of 2016, DeepMind, another Google subsidiary, was granted access to more than a million scan records by the National Health Service to develop artificial intelligence solutions to enhance capabilities for eye diagnosis.