Drexel University and Wills Eye Hospital are collaborating on a National Institutes of Health-funded project to improve early detection of glaucoma, a leading cause of irreversible blindness. The effort aims to enhance how Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) images are analyzed to better identify the disease in its earliest stages.
Andrew Cohen, PhD, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is partnering with Joel S. Schuman, MD, FACS, Vice Chair for Research Innovation at Wills Eye Hospital. Together, they are developing advanced computational methods to quantify subtle changes in the retina, specifically the thinning of the retinal nerve fiber layer, that precede vision loss from glaucoma.
“By developing robust analytical tools and open-access datasets, we aim to accelerate research in ophthalmic imaging and enhance clinical decision-making,” Cohen said.
The team plans to make their software and datasets freely available to the research community, expanding the impact of their work and supporting the next generation of glaucoma diagnostics.
