RETINA-AI

RETINA-AI Health, Inc., a privately-held company founded in 2017, is a health-tech firm specializing in the application of artificial intelligence for medical diagnostics. The company's strategic focus is on developing AI-powered systems to detect diseases through retinal imaging, aiming to make specialized healthcare more accessible in primary care settings. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

The company was founded by Dr. Stephen G. Odaibo, a retina specialist who also holds advanced degrees in mathematics and computer science. His unique, multidisciplinary background as a physician, mathematician, and full-stack AI engineer underpins the company's foundation. Dr. Odaibo's journey began in Nigeria, moving to the U.S. at 17 for his education where he participated in a Mathematics Fast Track Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. This diverse expertise has enabled him to personally lead the technical development of the company's products and navigate the clinical and regulatory landscapes.

RETINA-AI Health's business model centers on providing its AI-based diagnostic tools as a Software as a Medical Device (SaMD). Its primary clients are primary care physicians, insurers/payors, and ultimately patients. For physicians, the platform offers a new revenue stream through CPT code 92229 for automated retinal exams and helps improve HEDIS® Measures & CMS Star Ratings. Insurers and payors benefit from cost savings by closing care gaps and reducing payouts through the prevention of blindness. The company generates revenue through this system, which is designed to be reimbursed by Medicare and other major healthcare insurance providers.

The company's flagship product is the RETINA-AI Galaxy™, an AI system designed to detect diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of blindness in working-age adults. A medical assistant captures retinal images using a robotic camera, and the Galaxy web app analyzes them, providing a diagnostic report in less than 10 seconds. This allows for immediate, on-site screening in primary care offices without the need for a human grader or an eye care specialist. The system is compatible with multiple robotic cameras from different manufacturers, a key feature aimed at increasing accessibility. The technology has received U.S. patents for its AI-based system for the automatic diagnosis of eye diseases from images. Beyond diabetic retinopathy, the company's technology has the potential to detect other conditions visible in the retina, such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, and even markers for cardiovascular risk and dementia.

Since its founding, RETINA-AI Health has achieved significant milestones, including raising a total of $10.3 million over three funding rounds. A notable Series A round in August 2020 raised $5.2 million from private investors, 80% of whom were physicians, and included Bill Smith, the founder of Shipt. The company initiated a pivotal multi-center clinical trial for its Galaxy™ v2.0 system in late 2022.

Keywords: diabetic retinopathy, artificial intelligence, medical diagnostics, health-tech, retinal imaging, primary care, Software as a Medical Device, disease detection, ophthalmology, clinical trials