Why We Exist
Despite decades of clinical advances, early detection of cardiometabolic and cerebrovascular disease remains constrained by cost, geography, and the invasiveness of standard screening modalities. Millions across Europe carry silent systemic risk that goes undetected until a catastrophic event.
The retinal fundus photograph offers a uniquely accessible, non-invasive window into the systemic vasculature. A single five-minute imaging session — available in any optometry practice or primary care clinic — can reveal cardiometabolic and neurovascular pathology that would otherwise require expensive, specialist-led investigation.
EyeMap.ai Labs exists to unlock this potential at scale.
Approach
Operating within the oculomics framework — the study of systemic disease through ocular imaging — we are developing a suite of deep learning models trained to detect retinal biomarkers associated with systemic cardiometabolic and cerebrovascular risk.
Our models extract structural and vascular retinal signatures from standard fundus photographs, correlating these signatures with incident stroke, hypertension, and cardiovascular events.
Our work is designed to produce real-world clinical and policy outcomes, not research abstracts alone. Validated model outputs will directly inform screening protocols and prevention strategy at a national and European level.
Deployment
Validated outputs will directly inform the Romanian National Health Prevention Programme for cerebro-cardio-vascular diseases and contribute evidence relevant to the European Union's cardiovascular prevention strategy. Deployment is designed for point-of-care settings — optometry practices and primary care — requiring no specialist ophthalmic infrastructure.
Because our system operates from standard fundus photographs captured in any community optometry or primary care setting, the pathway from positive screen to clinical follow-up is short and does not depend on specialist ophthalmic infrastructure. This positions retinal AI as a credible instrument for large-scale, equitable cardiovascular prevention — reachable by the populations who need it most.