We already carry a highly sophisticated camera in our pockets. How long before we can leverage a smart phone to become the tricorder Star Trek had always promised? Apple Watch looks to be promising, and I imagine a world where humans won’t have to visit a doctor for a diagnosis, but rather to confirm, and walk a patient through a successful treatment plan
For the developing world, this is likely a great option [1] [2] (although you need to account for additional optics for a smartphone ["fundus camera"]). For the developed world, it's likely this gets lumped into a traditional eye exam. The benefit is from squeezing more data out of existing imaging encounters using ML; think about these as data pipeline implementations. > High-resolution images of the retina are now…
I think the real issue with OCT cost is machine utilization. An OCT machine is cheap as medical devices go, but, in the usual US model, it gets extremely low utilization. It takes a minute or so to get a scan, it’s completely painless and requires neither dilation or any particular expertise, but the machines only get used a couple times a day.
A venue like Costco or a comparably busy place in a different country could probably offer walk-up OCT scanning for a couple dollars or maybe even free and encourage people to do it once per year. If the FDA played along, software could likely analyze the images and detect the progression of quite a few diseases, several of which would be treatable.
(A brand new machine seems to cost something like $20k. If it gets used 60 times per day (credible for a large scale user but not for a small shop), $1 of revenue per scan gives an adequate payback.)