GEYEDANCE - AI guidance for robot-assisted eye surgery

Retina indications are the leading cause of visual impairment in industrialized countries and posing a big unmet socio-economic challenge. Performing surgical actions directly at the retina - one of the most delicate and sensitive areas of the human body - with ultra-thin microsurgical instruments and with a limited view makes retina surgery a very challenging discipline with surgeons working at the limit of what is possible, requiring years of training and experience to reach proficiency.
The GEYEDANCE project is directly addressing this need by translating methods from Artificial Intelligence to the area of surgical robotics, together to be used for an advanced user support for reducing the mental and physical load of the surgeon. Work in the project is building on two existing main blocks - the CE certified robot platform PSS from project partner Preceyes, and a prototype for a Common-Path OCT system with extended measurement depth from partner ACMIT. For the AI-components to be developed, two European leading groups in this domain - ALTAIR/University of Verona and ARTORG/University of Bern - are part of the consortium. Seamless involvement of key stakeholders during the complete development phase is indispensable for a meaningful outcome, and thus a prominent board of world-wide leading eye surgeons, led by partner University of Ferrara, will provide user insight and evaluate the resulting advanced robotic solution.
In-line with the concept of the “Innovation Actions” instrument, the project aims to generate tangible and “close-to-certification" technology reaching a TRL of 7 (or even higher), being evaluated in the framework of a first clinical trial. All together, the planned AI-based guidance system GEYEDANCE will help the consortium to further consolidate their leading position worldwide, will help retinal surgeons to optimize their task, and finally will help the patient by contributing to a better surgical outcome.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them