Hong Kong scientist evolves retinal scan technology to recognize early childhood autism
15 March, 2021
A good Hong Kong scientist is rolling out a strategy to use equipment learning and artificial cleverness to scan retinas of kids as young as six to detect early autism or the chance of autism and hopes to build up a commercial item this year.
Retinal eye scanning can help to improve early on detection and treatment outcomes for children, stated Benny Zee, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
"The need for starting early on intervention is they are still developing, they remain developing. So you will find a bigger potential for success," Zee said.
His method uses a high-resolution camera with new software applications which analyses a combo of elements including fibre layers and arteries in the eye.
The technology works extremely well to identify children at risk of autism and have them into treatment programmes sooner, said Zee.
Seventy kids were tested working with the technology, 46 with autism and a control band of 24. The technology was able to identify the kids with autism 95.7 % of the time. The common age tested was 13, with the youngest becoming six.
Zee's findings have already been published in EClinicalMedicine, a peer-reviewed medical journal.
Autism specialists welcomed his findings but said there remained an enormous stigma, with father and mother often reluctant to trust their kids have autism even though there are obvious signs.
"Often, parents will initially maintain denial," explained Dr Caleb Knight, who runs an exclusive autism therapy centre.
"If you had a medical check or biological marker like this, it could facilitate parents not going into denial for longer intervals and therefore the kid would get treatment quicker."
Children with autism need to hold out 80 weeks to see a specialist in the public medical sector, according to an emailed declaration from Hong Kong's government.
Zee told Reuters that his research will be a supplemental software to a specialist assessment by certified healthcare professionals.
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