Zeiss Medical Technology has entered a long-term strategic collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim for the development of predictive analytics for eye diseases.

Predictive analytics will help facilitate the early detection of eye diseases and offer more personalised treatments to avoid vision loss for serious eye disease patients.

The companies will combine their expertise in ophthalmological technology, algorithms, data analytics and the development of treatments to identify and treat retinal diseases early and prevent the occurrence of irreversible vision loss.

Using Zeiss’ cloud-connected devices and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted analysis of extensive image data sets, the partnership will focus on detecting markers of early stages of retinal diseases.

This will serve as a basis for clinical studies to develop accurate treatments for early-stage chronic retinal disease and earlier detection and prediction capabilities to protect vision through new treatment pathways.

Zeiss Medical Technology digital business unit head and ophthalmology strategic business unit head Euan Thomson said: “With our announcement today with Boehringer Ingelheim, we’re building on our strategy to innovate through partnerships in order to make breakthrough discoveries to combat vision loss and improve people’s lives.

“Enabled by our Zeiss Medical Ecosystem and the platform’s ability to aggregate massive data sets for analysis, we‘re strongly positioned to establish new partnerships in pursuit of research yet to be investigated, to accelerate access to future technologies and markets and to help clinicians provide earlier detection and more personalised and precise care for their patients.”

Due to diseases leading to functional loss of the retina, more than 300 million people across the world are at risk of losing their eyesight.