Multimodal AI to screen and predict eye disease progression
Official title: Developing Multimodal Foundation Models for Eye Disease Screening and Prognosis
Funded at Schepens Eye Research Institute · NIH-11339447 · Data updated 2026-11-12
A big AI project aims to use eye images and doctor notes to help screen for and predict how eye diseases like age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma may progress.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Schepens Eye Research Institute NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project start | August 1, 2026 |
| Project end | July 31, 2030 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $858,394 |
| NIH project number | 1R01EY038687-01 |
| Project ID | NIH-11339447 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Patients with or at risk for age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, or glaucoma whose eye images and related clinical notes can be used for model development.
✕Less likely to help
While advances may benefit many, some individuals may not directly benefit if their condition is not part of the study data.
What this research studies
This project will train a vision-language foundation model on retinal images and clinical notes to improve automated eye disease detection and prognosis. It will later adapt the model to downstream supervised tasks with smaller labeled datasets to guide personalized treatment planning. The work involves data from clinical notes and images, and will explore cross-institution learning to enable broader use. The goal is to enable faster, affordable screening and more accurate predictions of vision outcomes for patients.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, patients could receive faster, more accurate screening and personalized prognosis to guide treatment decisions.
How similar studies have gone: Foundation-model approaches in ophthalmology are emerging, with early studies showing promise but requiring further validation.
Where this research is happening
-
Schepens Eye Research Institute
Boston, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Wang, Mengyu — Schepens Eye Research Institute
- Study coordinator: Wang, Mengyu
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.