IT solutions and artificial intelligence (AI) tools will be employed to study neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) following a new multi-year collaboration announced by Novartis Pharma AG and software developer RetinAI Medical AG.
The master agreement will support a multi-centre international clinical study, involving more than 500 patients, that is designed to investigate the influence of optical coherence tomography image solutions using AI on the assessment of nAMD activity.
RetinAI will provide its CE-marked web-based data management platform, RetinAI Discovery, to process data at scale across imaging platforms and devices. Discovery is currently used by professionals to navigate imaging data, compute imaging biomarkers and track changes over time for some of the most common forms of eye diseases. RetinAI’s tools also support diagnostic analyses and clinical workflows as well as patient monitoring and adherence to treatment.
RetinAI and Novartis have previously worked on pilot projects in ophthalmology and the nAMD study is one of multiple projects in ophthalmology and digital health expected to be supported within this new collaborative arrangement. Indeed, Professor Dirk Sauer, Novartis’ Global Development Head of the Ophthalmology Franchise, sees RetinAI as a strategic partner for advancing eye care through digital innovation.
“With previous projects, RetinAI’s services have enabled us to enhance and more efficiently structure retina scans and data collected from our clinical studies. Together with RetinAI, we are working on end-toend solutions to generate swift and comprehensive disease insights to better treat patients and improve patient outcomes,” he said.
