Google partners with Indian medtech firms for AI-based diabetic retinopathy screening

Google announced an AI partnership with India-based medical device startup Forus Health and AuroLab. The firms will be working together to scale screening for diabetic retinopathy. In addition, Google announced a similar tie-up with two Thai medtech company Perceptra. Google spokesperson said that in ten years, these three partnerships will deliver six million screenings, with focus on resource-constrained communities.

Google will be licensing its diabetic retinopathy AI model to these firms under the partnership. The model aims to address preventable blindness amongst patients with diabetes, supporting clinicians with early detection at scale, and in turn assisting timely medical intervention. Globally, the model has been used to perform 600,000 screenings. Its early research and deployment was conducted in India. 

“From our initial research to the first patient screening in Madurai, we’re aiming to translate AI's potential into meaningful change for people globally. And now the partnerships with Forus Health, AuroLab, and Perceptra are helping us expand this target with our technology, as a global network of innovators rallies together to eradicate preventable blindness due to diabetic retinopathy,” said Sunny Virmani, Group Product Manager, Health AI Research, Google.

To be sure, in the first week of October, Google commemorated the completion of 20 years in India. The company also unveiled the tenth edition of Google for India, laying out its plans for the country. In this context, the tech giant announced at the time that it will be expanding its AI capabilities in local languages, introducing AI upskilling, and setting up a Google Safety Engineering Centre in India. The new Google Safety Engineering Centre (GSEC) will be launched in India in 2025, focused on developing security and online safety products for Indian users.