A 31-year-old Portuguese woman, who was declared legally blind, now has better than 20/20 vision, thanks to AI. She became the first person in the UK to undergo a revolutionary AI-powered laser eye surgery. Patrícia Gonçalves underwent the new Lasik procedure at Focus Clinics in London Post the surgery her eyesight was restored to a remarkable 20/16 visual acuity.
Patricia was legally blind without glasses owing to astigmatism and myopia. Her vision was worse than 20/200 which means that she couldn’t even read the largest “E” on an eye chart. Hence, her lasik procedure involved creating a “digital clone” of her eyes, which allowed an AI program to simulate thousands of laser adjustments to determine the best approach for her specific needs. The surgery was performed under the supervision of chief surgeon David Allamby.
After the procedure, she achieved a 20/16 vision. This is even better than the standard 20/20, which represents normal clarity at a distance of 20 feet. Speaking about the same, Dr Allamby said, “Her best vision pre-op was with glasses at 20/200. Today, she sees better at 20/16, gaining an extra line down the test chart.”
This life-changing technology is called “Eyevatar”. It has been used in China and Australia and is now available in the UK. This technology creates a high-precision eye map in just 10 minutes. This then allows an AI to replicate up to 2,000 laser beams to improve accuracy. When this technology was under clinical trial, 200 participants participated in it and the trial revealed that all patients achieved better-than-20/20 vision within three months, with some reaching an extraordinary 20/10, the theoretical human eye limit. Eyevatar provides great clarity by optimising the “point spread function” (PSF). This tells how much an image deviates from the retina.