Cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and stroke are a few of the many public health concerns among Hong Kong’s ageing population. There is an imminent call for effective health screening and monitoring to alert and inform the general public of health risks and make lifestyle changes for better health. Current screening tools are often cumbersome, for instance drawing blood samples or collecting body fluids, not to mention long waiting hours before results are revealed and collected. Some of these screening tools are expensive, while others require specialised personnel who are outnumbered by the demand.

The eye is the window to the soul. It also tells about our health conditions. While traditional physicians see patients to assess their health, the team has now developed a risk assessment tool – automatic retinal imaging analysis (ARIA) – with an algorithm that does the job of the expert eye. Fully automatic, non-invasive and simple to use, the tool generates risk estimates on stroke and other blood vessel related diseases by taking a picture of the rear of the eye. The results are ready in 2-3 minutes. Via this outreach programme, the team offers screening services with their tool as well as health talks in the community and at elderly centres, alerting people to prevent the aforementioned chronic diseases by subsequent changing of diet, exercise and medication.

Waking up to their own health condition, people are more aware of their own health risks and better educated in order to make informed decision to improve their physical well-being.

– 1142 programme participants– 777 participants receiving ARIA assessments

2018

AI, Healthcare, MedTech