Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39039218›Full record

ArticleNPJ digital medicine2024

Autonomous artificial intelligence for diabetic eye disease increases access and health equity in underserved populations.

Jane J Huang, Roomasa Channa, Risa M Wolf, Yiwen Dong, Mavis Liang, Jiangxia Wang, Michael D Abramoff, T Y Alvin Liu

Erratum issuedAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in NPJ digital medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
22citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Artificial intelligence in diabetic retinopathy: from automated screening to risk-stratified care.Graefe's archive for clinical and experimental ophthalmology = Albrecht von Graefes Archiv fur klinische und experimentelle Ophthalmologie · 2026
    Review
  3. Article
  4. AI for screening in healthcare: promise and challenges.Abdominal radiology (New York) · 2026
    Review
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Clinical warrant in medical LLM evaluation.Frontiers in digital health · 2026
    Review
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Ten years later: how is AI impacting retina care today?Current opinion in ophthalmology · 2025
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Article
  18. Artificial intelligence in ophthalmology: opportunities, challenges, and ethical considerations.Medical hypothesis, discovery & innovation ophthalmology journal · 2025
    Review
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Jane J HuangWilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5219-1617
Roomasa ChannaUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA.
Risa M WolfJohns Hopkins Pediatric Diabetes Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7674-520X
Yiwen DongDepartment of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0008-6474-1824
Mavis LiangDepartment of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Jiangxia WangDepartment of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Michael D AbramoffDepartment of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3490-0037
T Y Alvin LiuWilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. tliu25@jhmi.edu.

Funding

Diabetic Retinopathy: Genetics and Neurodegeneration (MSN246458)K23EY030911 · NEI · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · PI CHANNA, ROOMASA · 2020 to 2024
$1.3M
NEI NIH HHS K23 EY030911
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Diabetic eye disease (DED) is a leading cause of blindness in the world. Annual DED testing is recommended for adults with diabetes, but adherence to this guideline has historically been low. In 2020, Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) began deploying autonomous AI for DED testing. In this study, we aimed to determine whether autonomous AI implementation was associated with increased adherence to annual DED testing, and how this differed across patient populations. JHM primary care sites were categorized as "non-AI" (no autonomous AI deployment) or "AI-switched" (autonomous AI deployment by 2021). We conducted a propensity score weighting analysis to compare change in adherence rates from 2019 to 2021 between non-AI and AI-switched sites. Our study included all adult patients with diabetes (>17,000) managed within JHM and has three major findings. First, AI-switched sites experienced a 7.6 percentage point greater increase in DED testing than non-AI sites from 2019 to 2021 (p < 0.001). Second, the adherence rate for Black/African Americans increased by 12.2 percentage points within AI-switched sites but decreased by 0.6% points within non-AI sites (p < 0.001), suggesting that autonomous AI deployment improved access to retinal evaluation for historically disadvantaged populations. Third, autonomous AI is associated with improved health equity, e.g. the adherence rate gap between Asian Americans and Black/African Americans shrank from 15.6% in 2019 to 3.5% in 2021. In summary, our results from real-world deployment in a large integrated healthcare system suggest that autonomous AI is associated with improvement in overall DED testing adherence, patient access, and health equity.

Identifiers

PMID39039218
PMCPMC11263546

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.