AMGO Convention in Naples

“Artificial intelligence and digital technologies at the service of visual prevention and rehabilitation” was the title of the sixth AMGO (a me gli occhi) conference, organized by the Istituto Cavazza in collaboration with the Italian Union of the Blind and Partially Sighted under the patronage of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.

For two days on May 13th and 14th, the city of Naples was the setting for a major event. Finally, after months, there was a return to in-person meetings, attracting more than 300 ophthalmologists and orthoptists from all over Italy, who added to the approximately 1,000 contacts recorded during the Facebook live broadcast. The topic of new technologies in the medical field is on the agenda today, especially after the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which put a strain on our country’s healthcare facilities. There is a strong need to upgrade the technological equipment available to doctors and health professionals who, at the same time, have to resolve the current critical issues as best they can and prepare themselves to cope with the impact of numbers that estimates tell us, speaking of the ophthalmology sector alone, will increase alarmingly in the coming years.

Demographic trends show the progressive and constant aging of the population with a consequent increase in age-related diseases. Digital technologies can be well applied in this area and are showing good reliability in terms of cost effectiveness. Studying a photo of the ocular fundus taken and processed in seconds during a screening, without even dilating the pupil, can make it possible to conduct visual prevention on large numbers of people. The procedure becomes particularly effective when used on patients with systemic cardiovascular or metabolic diseases such as diabetes, for example, which put them at risk of developing retinopathy. Among the contributions made by the various experts, there was much discussion of remote visual rehabilitation, a topic that sees Cavazza among the leading facilities in Italy. For years, the Institute has been researching and developing IT solutions applied to visual education and rehabilitation, including specific programmes that enable patients to perform part of their activities at home. On the one hand, this makes it possible to reduce the travel time of people who would otherwise have to reach the centre several times, and on the other hand, it encourages daily work that can speed up the achievement of objectives.

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