With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the application of AI technology based on deep learning (DL) and machine learning (ML) in the medical field has received widespread attention. The application of AI in ophthalmology is gradually being shifted to a more comprehensive and in-depth level. Trained on corneal tomography, optical coherence tomography (OCT), slit-lamp images, and other techniques. AI can achieve robust performance in the diagnosis and treatment of corneal lesions, conjunctival lesions, cataract, glaucoma and other ophthalmic diseases. However, there are also some challenges in the application of AI in ophthalmology, including the lack of interpretability of results, lack of standardization of data sets, uneven quality of data sets, insufficient applicability of models and ethical issues. In the era of 5G and telemedicine, there are also many new opportunities for ophthalmic AI. In this review, we provided a summary of the state-of-the-art AI application in anterior segment ophthalmic diseases, potential challenges in clinical implementation and its development prospects, and provides reference information for the further development of artificial intelligence in the field of ophthalmology.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been widely used in cataract surgery. The combination of the two can play a great role in improving preoperative diagnosis, grading management of cataract surgery, intraoperative intraocular lens selection and location prediction, postoperative management (vision prediction, complication prediction and follow-up), surgical training and teaching. It is true that AI still faces many problems in the management, analysis and research related to cataract surgery, but its broad application prospects cannot be ignored. This review summarizes the application of AI in cataract surgery and teaching, and the future prospects of AI.

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) in ophthalmology has developed rapidly. Fundus image has become a research hotspot due to its easy access and rich biological information. The application of AI analysis in fundus image is under continuous development and exploration. At present, there have been many AI studies on clinical screening, diagnosis and prediction of common fundus diseases such as diabetic retinopathy (DR), age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and glaucoma, and related achievements have been gradually applied in clinical practice. In addition to ophthalmic diseases, exploring the relationship between fundus features and various diseases and developing AI diagnostic systems based on this has become another popular research field. The application of AI in fundus image analysis will improve the shortage of medical resources and low diagnostic efficiency, and open up a “new track” for screening and diagnosis of various diseases. In the future, research on AI analysis of fundus image should focus on the intelligent and comprehensive diagnosis of multiple fundus diseases, and comprehensive auxiliary diagnosis of complex diseases, and lays emphasis on the integration of standardized and high-quality data resources, improve algorithm performance, and design clinically appropriate research program.

The development of population aging and changes in the way people use their eyes over the recent years have increasingly challenged the existing ophthalmic medical resources to meet the growing medical needs, thus urgently calling for a novel diagnostic and treatment mode. Despite its status as an emerging sector in ophthalmology, ophthalmic artificial intelligence has developed rapidly in the screening and diagnosis of eye diseases, as can be seen in practices adopting the “eye imaging data + AI” mode. In recent years, with the intensified research on this mode with respect to common diseases such as cataract, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, relevant technologies have grown increasingly mature, presenting undeniable application superiority and prospects. Some of the relevant technical achievements have also been successfully transformed for practical usage, and are gradually being applied to clinical practices. Ophthalmic diagnosis and treatment are transitioning toward the era of intelligent medical services, which are expected to reduce the contradictions between the growing medical needs and the shortage of medical resources, as well as ultimately improve the overall experience of medical services.

In recent years, with the acceleration of digitalization and informatization in medical field, artificial intelligence (AI) is more and more widely applied, especially in ophthalmology. Infants are in the critical period of visual development, during which eye diseases can lead to irreversible visual impairment and bring heavy burden to family and society. Due to the particularity of infants and the shortage of pediatric ophthalmologists, it is challenging to carry out large-scale screening for eye diseases of infants. According to the latest studies, AI has been studied and applied in the fields of congenital cataract, congenital glaucoma, strabismus, amblyopia, retinopathy of prematurity, and evaluation of visual function, and it has achieved remarkable performance in the early screening, diagnosis stage and treatment suggestions, solving many clinical difficulties and pain points effectively. However, AI for infantile ophthalmology is not as developed as for adult ophthalmology, so it needs further exploration and development.

With the increasing coverage and availability of smart phones, the application of realizing intelligent health management has become an emerging research hotspot. The new generation of smart phones can perform health analysis by tracking the step numbers, monitoring heart rate and sleep quality, taking photos and other approaches, thereby becoming a new medical aid tool. With the continuous development of deep learning technology in the field of image processing, intelligent diagnosis based on medical imaging has blossomed in many disciplines, which is expected to completely change the traditional eye diseases diagnosis and treatment mode of hospitals. The conventional diagnosis of ophthalmic diseases often relies on various forms of images, such as slit lamp biological microscope, fundus imaging, optical coherence tomography, etc. As a result, ophthalmology has become one of the fastest growing areas of medical artificial intelligence (AI). The deployment of ophthalmological AI diagnosis and treatment system on smart phones is expected to improve the diagnostic efficiency and screening coverage to relieve the strain of medical resources, which has a great development prospect. This review focuses on the prevention and telemedicine progress of eye diseases based on deep learning and smart phones, taking diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and cataract as examples to describe the specific research, application and prospect of deep learning and smart phones in the management of eye diseases.

Objective: To establish and validate a universal artificial intelligence (AI) platform for collaborative management of cataracts involving multilevel clinical scenarios and explored an AI-based medical referral pattern to improve collaborative efficiency and resource coverage. Methods: The training and validation datasets were derived from the Chinese Medical Alliance for Artificial Intelligence, covering multilevel healthcare facilities and capture modes. The datasets were labelled using a three step strategy: (1)capture mode recognition; (2) cataract diagnosis as a normal lens, cataract or a postoperative eye and (3) detection of referable cataracts with respect to aetiology and severity. Moreover, we integrated the cataract AI agent with a real-world multilevel referral pattern involving self-monitoring at home, primary healthcare and specialised hospital services. Results: The universal AI platform and multilevel collaborative pattern showed robust diagnostic performance in three-step tasks: (1) capture mode recognition (area under the curve (AUC) 99.28%–99.71%), (2) cataract diagnosis (normal lens, cataract or postoperative eye with AUCs of 99.82%, 99.96% and 99.93% for mydriatic-slit lamp mode and AUCs >99% for other capture modes) and (3)detection of referable cataracts (AUCs >91% in all tests). In the real-world tertiary referral pattern, the agent suggested 30.3%  of people be ’referred’, substantially increasing the ophthalmologist-to-population service ratio by 10.2-fold compared with the traditional pattern. Conclusions: The universal AI platform and multilevel collaborative pattern showed robust diagnostic performance and effective service for cataracts. The context of our AI-based medical referral pattern will be extended to other common disease conditions and resource-intensive situations.

Objective: This study was designed to explore its potential value for new medical service model based on the intelligent voice follow-up system and analyze its application effect during the outbreak of COVID-19. The actual effectiveness of this intelligent voice follow-up system applied in the Internet hospital to carry out medical consultation service was discussed. Methods: In this study, an intelligent voice follow up system was developed for postoperative follow-up of children with congenital cataract. First, a well-designed and structured questionnaire contents were developed for postoperative follow-up. Secondly, the intelligent voice follow-up system was deployed. The system would automatically jump to the next follow-up step according to the user’s response, and give appropriate suggestions. Finally, the data of telephone recording, call time, children’s attributes were collected and statistically analyzed. Results: From February 24 to March 15, 2020, 561 families of children with congenital cataract from Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center were recruited by using the intelligent voice follow-up system. The system completed a total of 1 154 calls, of which 561 cases received follow-up data, reaching an average effective call rate of 48.6%. Among 561 cases, 204 (36.4%) thought that the extended time of follow-up visit would affect the recovery of children, while 309 (55.1%) thought that it exerted no effect on the recovery. 360 children (64.2%) achieved good ocular recovery without complications, whereas 169 cases (30.1%) developed ocular symptoms. These include white spots in the pupil area, redness and eye secretions. Statistics of different behavior of children showed that there were 417 (74.3%) children wearing glasses, 135 (24.1%) children did not wear glasses, another 9 (1.6%) children wearing glasses were not clear, often rubbing the eyes of children were more likely to appear redness (20.4%), eye secretions (17.0%) and white spots in the pupil area (6.8%) and other adverse reactions. Conclusion: The intelligent voice follow-up system shows great application potential in clinical follow-up, which can be employed as a new service mode of intelligent medical treatment.

The establishment of standardized data center can promote the accumulation of high-quality data resources and the development of medical artificial intelligence. On the basis of medical big data, medical artificial intelligence systems in different application scenarios can be established and integrated into an intelligent service cloud platform, which improves the management efficiency of intelligent medical systems. This article takes ophthalmology as a prototype to summarize the experience of the establishment of ophthalmic data center and intelligent service cloud platform, aiming to provide reference and guidance for ophthalmology and other specialties to carry out artificial intelligence research, establish data center and build an intelligent service cloud platform.

Objective: To analyze the effectiveness of medical education curriculum named “Development and Application of Ophthalmic Artificial Intelligence”, and provide reference for the development of other related curriculums. Methods: Longitudinal observational study method was adopted. During the fall semester of 2020, we conducted an education curriculum named “Development and Application of Ophthalmic Artificial Intelligence” and analyzed the results of mid-term and final examinations, and curriculum evaluation of students. Results: There were 118 undergraduate students taking the course and most of them were junior students majoring in clinical medicine. The score of the mid-term examination was in the range of 77.2±10.07, and 56 students (47.46%) got more than 80 points. The score of the final examination was in the range of 82.24±6.77, and 91 students (77.12%) got more than 80 points. The score of course evaluation of students was in the range of 98.76±3.55, and more than 90% of the students thought that teachers have made full preparations before class, together with clear teaching logic and accurate expressions in class. Conclusion: The smooth progress of our course proved the feasibility of medical artificial intelligence teaching. The teaching setting interspersed with theory and practice could help students to master knowledge and technology better, so as to achieve the teaching objectives.