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Artificial intelligence for telemedicine diabetic retinopathy screening: a review

Nakayama LF, Zago Ribeiro L, Novaes F, Miyawaki IA, Miyawaki AE, de Oliveira JAE, Oliveira T, Malerbi FK et al.

Annals of medicine, 2023

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study aims to compare artificial intelligence (AI) systems applied in diabetic retinopathy (DR) teleophthalmology screening, currently deployed systems, fairness initiatives and the challenges for implementation.

METHODS: The review included articles retrieved from PubMed/Medline/EMBASE literature search strategy regarding telemedicine, DR and AI. The screening criteria included human articles in English, Portuguese or Spanish and related to telemedicine and AI for DR screening. The author's affiliations and the study's population income group were classified according to the World Bank Country and Lending Groups.

RESULTS: The literature search yielded a total of 132 articles, and nine were included after full-text assessment. The selected articles were published between 2004 and 2020 and were grouped as telemedicine systems, algorithms, economic analysis and image quality assessment. Four telemedicine systems that perform a quality assessment, image preprocessing and pathological screening were reviewed. A data and post-deployment bias assessment are not performed in any of the algorithms, and none of the studies evaluate the social impact implementations. There is a lack of representativeness in the reviewed articles, with most authors and target populations from high-income countries and no low-income country representation.

CONCLUSIONS: Telemedicine and AI hold great promise for augmenting decision-making in medical care, expanding patient access and…

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