An Intel-backed AI PC from Acer Medical is helping cut eye lesion detection from weeks to seconds.

A comprehensive eye exam in a crowded doctor’s office can often take the better part of two hours, with much of that time spent waiting for dilation-related eye drops to take effect before tests even begin. While an initial diagnosis using fundus photography can be provided on the spot, analysing results might take much longer: A patient may wait up to four weeks for a confirmed diagnosis, especially if the data require input from other eye specialists.

Thanks to Acer Medical’s AI-assisted diagnostic software and a combination of Intel hardware and software, accurate results can be delivered in seconds.

Using Acer Medical’s VeriSee DR (www.acer-medical.com/solutions/verisee-dr) for diabetic retinopathy and VeriSee Age-related Macular Degeneration (VeriSee AMD, www.acer-medical.com/solutions/verisee-amd) for age-related macular degeneration, results are processed and stored on an Acer laptop powered by Intel Core Ultra processors (www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/details/processors/core-ultra.html), with no internet connection required.

These tools boost doctor productivity and efficiency while keeping patient data private in a secure medical environment, providing additional peace of mind. And because all the AI data-crunching happens on the AI PC, it can be performed away from a hospital setting, bringing diagnoses to people who are far from healthcare specialists.

VeriSee DR and AMD – technologies available in 13 countries – provide health care professionals with tools powered by AI-based algorithms to shorten diagnosis times and expedite patient care.

Hsieh Yi-Ting, a consultant ophthalmologist and retina specialist at the National Taiwan University Hospital, has spent more than two decades in the field. He developed VeriSee DR and advocated for its use across Taiwan to assess a patient quickly for diabetic retinopathy, an eye condition that causes vision loss and blindness in diabetic patients.

He also developed VeriSee AMD to detect age-related macular degeneration, an eye disease that progressively blurs vision as people grow older.

This is how VeriSee works: A specialised fundus camera takes high-resolution images of the inner eye without the need to dilate pupils and sends detailed scans to a connected Acer AI PC. Specialised AI software then analyses each image and automatically brackets eye complications in seconds. It also ranks potential lesion complications from moderate to severe.

VeriSee AMD analysis today is about 95% accurate, but that number is improving as more anonymised data from other eye exams are added to train and improve the AI models.

Thanks to the AI’s ability to detect potential eye lesions quickly, patients no longer need to apply eye drops and wait hours for the medication to take effect prior to an eye exam in a packed clinic.

And the portability of the device – the camera and AI PC can be transported in a luggage-size case – and its ability to deliver results without an internet connection mean it can be used to examine patients in rural areas, far from large hospitals.

Yi-Ting stressed that the AI-backed technology didn’t replace actual doctors. Instead, it’s a tool that boosts the standard of patient care.

“The information provided by AI is a reference, a snapshot that aids our diagnosis,” he said. “Although that reference is reliable, we still need medical professionals to analyse and convey the results to patients that will help them understand what the next steps and options are.”

It’s also a handy aid in teaching primary care doctors of diabetic patients and the elderly, who are mainly general practitioners and internal physicians, not eye specialists.

“A key benefit in using VeriSee DR and AMD is the software makes it easy for us to teach other doctors who are not familiar with these lesions in the eye fundus,” said Yi-Ting. “It saves us time as the lesions are automatically marked, making it a useful tool when we coach and train new doctors on how to make the diagnosis.”

It is available from Acer Medical in Taiwan and is being used by the National Taiwan University Hospital (www.ntuh.gov.tw), a national teaching medical centre staffed by 7500 people. The PC is powered by Intel-backed hardware and software including OpenVino tool kits working in tandem with Acer Medical’s proprietary algorithms.

“With OpenVino, we have reduced the software’s start-up time by 70%, cut analysis time per image by 90%, reduced memory usage by 90%,” said Allen Lien, CEO of Acer Medical (www.acer-medical.com).

At the National Taiwan University Hospital, plans are underway to scale this technology to more clinics on campus and expand its use across more branches of medicine.

“I really enjoy seeing the progress of science, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, because I think AI is just not a fancy tool,” said Yi-Ting. “It’s really something that can help us, not only in the medical field, but I think in all fields across society. We have witnessed so many things that have been touched and changed by AI. It’s not something to fear, but rather a valuable companion that can help us change the world for the better.”