Canadian health tech company DIAGNOS announced April 16 it would be supplying the AI for Saudi Arabia’s first hypertensive retinopathy screening clinic.
DIAGNOS’ major platform is CARA (Computer Assisted Retina Analysis), a tele-ophthalmology system that integrates with existing hardware and software to deliver results at the point of care. According to the company’s site, the AI’s image enhancement algorithms render standard retinal images sharper, clearer and easier to read.
As a result, CARA has been used to read and grade hypertensive retinopathy, an eye condition resulting from high blood pressure that damages and inhibits proper circulation to the retina. It’s a cost-effective tool for screening large populations in real-time, and its compatibility with EMRs and all recognized image formats and fundus cameras makes it nearly universally applicable.
“The software automatically elicits the severity level of the hypertensive retinopathy along with a recommendation for treatment referral,” Hadi Chako, CMO at DIAGNOS, said in a release. “This information is relayed immediately to the doctor. The core objective of this project is to integrate AI effectively in the healthcare system and to provide better-quality health through early screening of chronic diseases by impacting and promoting prevention in a large population.”
DIAGNOS is partnering with Kanhoor Medical to bring the technology to Saudi Arabia’s first hypertensive retinopathy screening clinic. DIAGNOS vice president Yves-Stephane Couture said the move builds on a “long-term relationship” with Kanhoor.
“We are delighted to open our first screening clinic for high blood pressure in collaboration with DIAGNOS,” Rashid AlMugait, Kanhoor’s president, said in the release. “We encourage and support DIAGNOS in its endeavor as an AI pioneer. We are pleased with this new hypertension application which will help us to provide an additional prevention service to our communities.”
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.