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Detecting ocular glaucoma in primary care centers will be possible thanks to the early diagnosis tool being developed by researchers at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT), based on artificial intelligence techniques based on 'deep learning'.

The objective of this project, directed by José Luis Sancho Gómez, is to screen the population at risk in a way that is not only precise, but also highly specific.

It is financed by the Séneca Foundation [20901 / PI / 18], which chose this initiative and another fifteen from the UPCT in its latest call for grants for scientific and technical research projects.

Chronic simple glaucoma is one of the ophthalmological diseases that most often causes loss of vision and even blindness in today's society.

This disease is initially asymptomatic, so it is usually detected in very advanced stages when its effects are already irreversible.

"The benefit of early diagnosis justifies the implementation of screening campaigns, it being desirable to automate these studies and transfer them to Primary Health Care Centers (CSAP) in order to increase the population that will be analyzed without increasing costs", says Sancho, head of the research group on Data Processing and Machine Learning (TDAM) of the School of Telecommunications Engineering.

The early diagnosis tool will be incorporated as a new module in a computer system of the Murcian Health Service (SMS) that is being developed to provide service to CSAPs throughout the Region.

In the creation of this system, the TDAM group and the Reina Sofía General University Hospital collaborate thanks to a grant from the Ministry with Feder Funds [PI17 / 00771].

"The use of the tool will be simple, because it will be automated, and can be applied to the images obtained by the retinographers available in the primary care centers," says the person in charge of the project.

Glaucoma is the cause of 18% of blindness in Europe, whose cost of treatment in Spain is estimated at 360 million euros.

"Early detection can, in addition to greatly improve the visual prognosis of those affected, reduce the costs associated with the treatment of advanced disease," highlights José Luis Sancho.

Source: UPCT