Universal Medicine

This blog aims to build on Nada’s ophthalmology blog , raising awareness of the hype surrounding AI, and talks about the issue of health data poverty and why we need to address this. The lack of rigour in AI research, beware of the hype The literature within the AI healthcare field has grown considerably in the last three years. Several reviews have discussed current and future use-cases across healthcare, and NHSX have summarised these applications (see Figure 1) within their report: ‘Artificial Intelligence: How to get it right’ . Topol outlined how the benefits would be impactful at three levels: ·       Clinicians- primarily assisted by rapid diagnostic aid in patient management (particularly image interpretation e.g radiology, pathology, ophthalmology [as Nada discussed] ), and automation of repetitive administrative tasks to free up time. ·       Health systems- operational applications in non-patient facing, back-end systems that improve workflow, and a reduction in varia

Contact lenses have been frequently used as an alternative to glasses. Compared to the heavy-framed glasses in front of one’s eyes (optic glasses), thin plastic discs on the eye (contact lenses) help correct refractive errors in both myopic and hypermetropic users. The lens’ shape and power can be tailored to the user’s sight. A concave lens can be used to decrease myopia by reducing light refraction and increasing focal length so that the image is formed on the retina (1)  (Figure 1). Alternatively, a convex lens can be used to limit hypermetropia in an opposing mechanism to concave lenses (1) (Figure 1). Figure 1, An illustration of myopia and hyperopia and how adding lens of different shapes in front of the eye can be used to alter the refraction of light and correct each impairment in vision (10) Besides supporting sight, which both types of lenses can do, contact lenses confer some advantages that make them preferable to glasses. Unlike glasses, contact lenses are less likely to f