Resource: Clinical Research Center

Edited by Xianjing Wei

On the afternoon of January 23rd, 2019, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center held a ceremony in the Conference Hall of its Zhujiang New Town Hospital to mark the release of its Mobile phone and Personal Computer Application (App) for Visual Field interpretation, named “iGlaucoma 1.0”. This smart screen platform “iGlaucoma 1.0” has been built using the most advanced Artificail Intelligence (AI) technology. This is a novel achievement in the AI research of glaucoma and follows ZOC’s other successes in the areas of congenital cataract, diabetic retinopathy and myopia prediction. Prof. Xiulan Zhang acted as the Principal Investigator of the “iGlaucoma AI” project, in cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.


Figure 1 APP of Mobile and PC for VF interpretation (iGlaucoma 1.0) released in Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide and its early diagnosis can be very difficult. The most important clinical examination is that of the visual field, but its interpretation is subjective and has a long learning curve. After three years hard work, Prof. Xiulan Zhang’s team in cooperation with a team from Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (led by Prof Yu Qiao) and Sense Time Company, together with 10 other domestic ophthalmic institutions, successfully developed an automatic visual field interpretation algorithm. This algorithm is based on 10,000 “labeled Humphrey visual field reports” and has a diagnostic accuracy of 0.876. Now the algorithm has been embedded into the App “iGlaucoma 1.0” which can be accessed from both computer and mobile phones. It can be used by glaucoma specialists, non-glaucoma ophthalmologists and especially doctors in rural hospitals, helping them to interpret the visual field reports and improve the diagnosis of glaucoma.

Prof. Xiulan Zhang gave a presentation on her AI research project on glaucoma conducted by her research group and showed the audience the operational method of “iGlaucoma 1.0”. After inputting Humphrey visual field results, the “iGlaucoma” App can quickly and accurately output diagnosis, which is very convenient, fast, and has an accuracy rate as high as 87.6%.

Prof.Yizhi Liu，the Director of ZOC, and Prof. Jian Ge, the former Director of ZOC delivered speeches, pointing out that ZOC continues to keep pace with science and technology, and has closely combined ophthalmology diagnosis and treatment with big data and Artificial Intelligence. It is the significant combination of scientific and clinical research and clinical practice.

The launch of multi-center clinical trials of the smart screen platform “iGlaucoma 1.0” was held following the speeches. Representatives from 20 ophthalmic institutions from all over the country who continue to participate in this study to verify the performance of the platform in the “real world”, were also in attendance.

Figure 2 Representatives from the 20 ophthalmic institutions continuing to participate in the multi-center clinical trials.

Prof. Xiulan Zhang’s team is committed to the cutting-edge research of glaucoma, involving glaucoma Artificial Intelligence, brain cognition, and gut microbiota and immunity, in the pathogenesis of glaucoma. She has published 112 SCI papers and achieved the National Science and Technology Progress Award, Guangdong Science and Technology Progress Award, was in the TOP 100 influential people in ophthalmology (2014) and received the Achievement Award of Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) and as well as other awards.