Abstract
Purpose :
To train a humanoid robot, called Alborz, to meet the special needs of pediatric ophthalmologists for obtaining high diagnostic accuracy in young patients and for engaging and educating children about their own visual health.
Methods :
Pediatric ophthalmologists face significant challenges in obtaining accurate visual acuity measurements in children and in engaging/educating young patients to improve outcomes. We propose the use of an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled humanoid Nao family robot, called Alborz, as a strategy that could meet both needs. First, we have programed Alborz with integrated, state-of-the-art deep learning-based models, which allows Alborz to make highly accurate and unbiased diagnoses based on fundus photographs. Next, we will take advantage of Alborz’s natural language processing (NLP) and understanding capabilities to provide direct communication and interaction with clinicians and, importantly, with young patients in order to take advantage of their natural fascination with robots. Alborz has the potential to not only augment pediatric clinical care, but also to improve young patients’ engagement (particularly in children with other comorbidities such as autism), reduce anxiety of eye care visits, enhance eye exams by improving attention particularly in inattentive children, improve their collaboration, boost motivation, and additionally, it could improve access to eye care screening for children in underrepresented areas.
Results :
The diagnostic accuracy of Alborz in terms of area under the receiver operating characteristic in detecting glaucoma from fundus photos or visual fields is over 0.97 (95% CI: 0.93-0.99). Alborz is under training to rationally interact and speak directly with children as well as pediatric ophthalmologists based on scientific ophthalmic knowledge.
Conclusions :
Alborz is under training to function as a digital pediatric companion ophthalmologist. We expect Alborz to interact and communicate with pediatric ophthalmologists and their patients, thereby leading to improvements in visual testing and diagnoses, and to creation of educational programs that will engage children. Additionally, Alborz can augment both general and pediatric ophthalmology considering the low number of pediatric ophthalmologists.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Imaging in the Eye Conference, held in New Orleans, LA, April 21-22, 2023.