Topcon Healthcare has announced a partnership with Microsoft to deliver artificial intelligence (AI)-driven eye healthcare solutions aimed at enhancing access, reducing costs, and improving the quality of healthcare.

Dubbed ‘Healthcare from the Eye’, the offering is aimed at improving healthcare by pre-screening patients for systemic and neurological diseases through a robotic, non-invasive eye scan.

Topcon has been partnering with Microsoft since February this year and has initiated several projects, including one with the University of California, San Diego in the US.

This project demonstrated the benefits of AI-driven screening and coordinated care for diabetic patients across various medical disciplines.

Topcon also has established the Institute for Digital Health (IDHea), a secure population database platform.

The institute is involved in multiple research studies with entities such as Visionworks, Keplr Vision, and UC San Diego Health Shiley Eye Institute.

These studies integrated cloud storage and advanced computing technologies of Microsoft Azure to protect data and algorithms.

In a proof-of-concept study featuring National Vision, Toku, and BeeKeeperAI, Toku's AI-powered BioAge algorithm has shown to be securely implemented in a large clinical setting.

This deployment utilises BeeKeeperAI's confidential computing technology and end-to-end encryption.

The Topcon Healthcare Corporate Venture Capital fund is supporting 'Healthcare from the Eye' initiatives by investing in science-based AI innovators.

Topcon Healthcare CEO and president Ali Tafreshi said: “We are committed to making healthcare accessible and affordable through pre-screening using oculomics - leveraging the eye for insights into systemic and neurological health. We call this, ‘Healthcare from the Eye.’ 

“A key element of this effort is Harmony - a vendor-inclusive, secure, connected data management platform.”