IRIS

Infantile-cataract Risk Identification Software

Early Detection, Lifelong Vision

Every year, thousands of children worldwide suffer preventable visual impairment due to congenital cataracts. The key to saving sight is early detection — but current screening methods are inconsistent, resource-intensive, and often miss cataracts until it’s too late.

IRIS is designed to change that.

What is Iris

IRIS is a cloud-based AI screening platform that empowers caregivers in neonatal wards and pediatric clinics to detect cataracts in infants aged 0–3 years.

  • Computer Vision (CNN): Detects cataract presence from a simple smartphone/tablet image of the eye.
  • Generative AI (LLM): Translates medical outputs into clear, human-understandable explanations for caregivers.
  • Human Oversight: Caregivers validate results, avoiding false positives and ensuring safe referrals.

With IRIS, cataract screening becomes fast, accessible, and scalable, without replacing the expertise of ophthalmologists.

Why Iris

  • Problem: Cataracts in newborns often remain unnoticed, and red reflex testing is inconsistently applied.
  • Impact: Delayed diagnosis leads to impaired visual development, costly rehabilitation, and lifelong loss of vision.
  • Solution: Standardized AI-powered screening at the point of care ensures timely referral and treatment.

How It Works

  1. Caregiver captures an image of the infant’s eye with a mobile device.
  2. IRIS analyzes the image using a trained convolutional neural network.
  3. The system provides a diagnostic likelihood and generates a human-readable report.
  4. Caregiver reviews and, if positive, refers the child to a specialist.

Benefits

  • For caregivers: Simple, fast, reliable tool for neonatal cataract screening.
  • For hospitals: Cost-effective way to standardize early screening without specialized training.
  • For children & families: Early treatment → full visual recovery → lifelong impact.

Our vision

We believe no child should lose their sight to a condition that can be detected and treated early.
IRIS is not just technology — it’s a movement to eliminate preventable childhood blindness.

Join the coalition of the willing

We are building a coalition of hospitals, pediatric caregivers, researchers, and policymakers to explore IRIS in a first-phase pilot.

👉 If you are ready to shape the future of neonatal vision care, let’s talk.

If you want more information feel free to download this presentation (PDF)