CERA has been redesignated as Australia's only WHO Collaborating Centre for the Prevention of Blindness - continuing work to improve the quality, access and effectiveness of eye care while reducing blindness among low- and middle-income communities around the world.
This collaboration is working towards the World Health Organization (WHO) goal of reducing the global burden of blindness.
Associate Professor Lisa Zhuoting Zhu, Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for the Prevention of Blindness, says the collaboration is enabling research with a global impact.
"CERA is developing innovative tools and strategies to prevent vision loss, while WHO is providing the platform to implement them across diverse health systems."
AI screening tools
Technology being developed at CERA is being amplified through collaborations with WHO.
CERA previously developed WHOEyes - a smartphone app distributed by WHO that allows anyone to monitor their vision at home to detect any sudden changes in their vision between visits to an eye care specialist.
The app is particularly useful where healthcare is difficult to access and visiting an eye care professional requires a lot of travel.
The team's next step is using AI and advanced imaging to also improve how eye disease can be detected. This includes common conditions such as diabetic eye disease and glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, as well as other conditions throughout the body.
The group's most ambitious project yet is an all‑in‑one AI screening test that could detect eye conditions and other health problems linked to diabetes, such as cardiovascular risk and chronic kidney disease, in a single GP visit.
Combining multiple checks into a single GP visit could increase early detection, streamline follow-up and ease pressure on specialist services.
"This all‑in‑one AI technology can screen for major diabetes complications," Associate Professor Zhu says. "It will be a game changer: saving time and raising awareness of diabetes complications."
These innovations are especially valuable for communities with limited access to clinicians.
"AI‑powered tests are relatively low cost to implement, yet the benefits for remote and underserved populations can be enormous," Associate Professor Zhu says.
"They can help reduce health inequities between urban and rural areas."
Innovative eye care
CERA and WHO are also continuing to work together on reducing myopia - more commonly known as shortsightedness - among children.
Myopia rates have been dramatically increasing, with 50 per cent of the world's population predicted to be short-sighted by the year 2050.
Research shows children who spend more time outdoors have a lower risk of myopia, but outdoor time also increases exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation associated with skin cancer and conditions that affect the eye.
Combined, these three conditions place a high burden on the health care systems of low-, middle- and high-income countries.
WHO Collaborating Centre Deputy Director Gareth Lingham is leading a national study to define recommendations for safe and effective outdoor‑time.
"Our aim is clear, evidence‑based messages that maximise myopia prevention while minimising UV risk - for example, advising optimal durations, timing and sun protection," Dr Lingham says.
"Once we have clear recommendations, WHO can amplify them through their myopia campaigns and partner networks, so the messaging reaches families everywhere."
The emerging field of oculomics has the potential to revolutionise the detection, prediction, and monitoring of many diseases.
CERA is proud to be Australia's only designated World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for the Prevention of Blindness, working to reduce the global burden of vision impairment.
