IOL Recommender AI

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  Screenshot - Starting Conversation with IOL Recommender AI Agent

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  Screenshot - Recommended IOLs based on sample patient response to the questionnaire.

My father is an ophthalmologist, and he once discussed how difficult and time-consuming it is to make an average patient understand the different types of intraocular lenses (IOLs) available for cataract surgery today. During the discussion, he told me about the cumbersome counseling process and the mandatory informed consent that must be obtained from each prospective cataract patient before surgery. Understandably, someone who is going for cataract surgery ought to be properly guided in selecting the most appropriate IOL, which would provide the most adequate visual rehabilitation and the least chance of requiring prescription eyeglasses in the postoperative period.

With this in mind, I contemplated and developed a simple questionnaire-based AI algorithm that endeavors to shortlist and suggest the most appropriate IOL for each patient according to certain criteria, which are part of the AI questionnaire protocol. The Intraocular Lens (IOL) Recommendation System, developed using Google Cloud Vertex AI Agent, streamlines and personalizes the process of selecting the most suitable IOL for patients. This AI Agent gathers essential information from users about their vision needs, lifestyle, and preferences through a series of targeted questions and provides a customized IOL recommendation. This not only helps the patient understand the available choices but also makes the counselor's or surgeon's task easier, effectively saving consultation time with ophthalmologists and making the process more efficient. It also serves as part of the informed consent process, where patients, along with their families, get to learn about and make an informed decision. As a positive side effect, this makes the medico-legal informed consent more robust.

Through this activity, I learned about the real challenges faced by patients before cataract surgery and how I can contribute to solving this common problem faced by patients and surgeons alike each day. The magnitude of the problem is underscored by the fact that around 28 million cataract surgeries are performed each year worldwide – 4 million in the US alone!

Built With

• google-vertex-ai