Dr. Abhishek Mandal, Ph.D.

Senior Business Adviser, Vision Science Academy, London, U.K.

Vision Science Academy Exclusive

 With technology entering into our daily lives more rapidly than ever, things will be quite different in the upcoming 10 years. Every aspect of our life is being automated and made simpler with the help of technological advancements and the same is the case in medical sciences, especially when it comes to the field of vision science.

Advancement in Technology

In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has advanced to new heights. The role of AI in visual sciences is already becoming well established and soon every field of medical science will incorporate its applications.

In the new decade, it is being expected that most of the pathological changes in the lens and retina will be automatically diagnosed by AI, including cataracts, vascular abnormalities, and retinal detachment. This would aid the eye care specialists including the ophthalmologists and optometrists, in establishing a diagnosis much more efficiently. Such an approach would also assist in filtering out patients at various stages of disease beforehand, thereby averting serious visual complications (Urias et al., 2019).

Changes in Patient Care

In the field of vision science, patient care is becoming better day by day. The field of teleophthalmology is gradually being developed worldwide where eye specialists and optometrists are determined to work coherently, thereby providing a well-organized and goal-oriented eye care. In terms of eye surgery, visual implants are expected to become quite common in later years as this prospect is gaining traction. Many new surgical techniques are being developed for retinal and corneal implants.

Moreover, 3D printing technology will be the norm in the next 5-10 years. Scientists already have been able to make 3D printed corneas and have attempted successful transplantation as well. It will not be very long till we see hospitals making 3D-printed corneas in their own facility. The dependence on donors will be markedly reduced while the fears of transplant rejection will be virtually zero in the coming years. (Zhang et al., 2019). In addition, the recent development of biopolymers has also paved way for innovation in visual implants which enables the patients to have a better cosmetic outlook even after enucleation.

Changes in Education System

Virtual Reality or VR is gaining popularity as a training tool in those fields of surgery where the patient risk is considered to be extraordinarily high. This is also true in the realm of eye care where surgical training has been revolutionized. In the near future, many ophthalmology residents will be trained extensively on these modes of learning before acquiring an actual hands-on experience. In this way, novice surgeons can build up their operative expertise by working in a controlled environment. In turn, this will help them gain more confidence and dexterity in their surgical skills (Sheik-Ali, Edgcombe, & Paton, 2019). The outcomes of these new modalities will help promote vision sciences to a whole new level.

All these developments make the future of vision sciences look very exciting and it may not be very long before we witness these groundbreaking modifications.

References

Sheik-Ali, S., Edgcombe, H., & Paton, C. (2019). Next-generation Virtual and Augmented Reality in Surgical Education: A Narrative Review. Surg Technol Int, 35, 27-35.

Urias, M. G., Patel, N., He, C., Ebrahimi, A., Kim, J. W., Iordachita, I., & Gehlbach, P. L. (2019). Artificial intelligence, robotics and eye surgery: are we overfitted? Int J Retina Vitreous, 5, 52. doi:10.1186/s40942-019-0202-y

Zhang, B., Xue, Q., Li, J., Ma, L., Yao, Y., Ye, H., . . . Yang, H. (2019). 3D bioprinting for artificial cornea: Challenges and perspectives. Med Eng Phys, 71, 68-78. doi:10.1016/j.medengphy.2019.05.002