In its latest step to embrace artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology, Topcon Healthcare, Inc. announced the launch of an ocular data-as-a-service platform focused on research and innovations in digital health: the Institute of Digital Health (IDHea).
First, talk about this digital health approach.
It all circles back to the global company’s Healthcare from the Eye initiative.The rundown: This is a clinical strategy in which AI models are applied to imaging data (from the eye) to enable both earlier detection and better management of ocular and systemic diseases.
- See here for details on how this initiative utilizes Topcon’s Harmony, a clinical image and data management platform for streamlining clinical practice workflows and organizing ophthalmic clinical data.
And notably: The company has spent the last year-plus making strides toward this approach via a growing number of strategic collaborations, acquisitions (see here for its recent purchase of RetInSight), and launches—with IDHea being the latest addition.
- And in other recent news: Topcon named a new chief medical officer tasked with furthering this long-term initiative.
Now explain IDHea.
In a nutshell: Via AI-based analytics, IDHea is designed to provide fast and secure access to real-world and clinical trial datasets—promoting healthcare application (app) advancements to improve ocular / systemic disease outcomes.
- In describing the platform’s big-picture purpose, Topcon noted it’s working toward a future of “predictive, personalized, and proactive patient care” by “bridging the gap between data and discovery.”
Also: See its story here and check out this list of IDHea’s strategic partners (which includes the Illinois College of Optometry and Kepler Vision).
Let’s get into the details of this.
The platform’s foundation is based on what Topcon refers to as the FAST principle.
- Fast → Enables rapid access to a large repository of ocular data (real-world and clinical trial-based)
- Accessible → Ensures data is available at any time and from anywhere via a secure, cloud-based infrastructure
- Safe → Follows industry-standard practice for a private and secure data environment
- Transparent → All data requests are subjected to a thorough review conducted by an independent data access and governance committee adhering to publicly-accessible policies and regulatory standards
Talk more about this data governance.
The platform’s data access and governance committee is composed of impartial and independent experts in fields like medicine and technology as well as policy and ethics.
- Check out the seven-member committee.
- And see the step-by-step process of a data access request—including a public record registry of all requests approved by the committee.
The intent: To essentially balance the “needs of researchers with the rights of data contributors” in order to ensure that shared data simultaneously:
- Advances scientific discovery
- Protects privacy
- Upholds values of fairness, equity, and inclusivity
- In other words: Does not compromise ethical principles
So where is the data collected from?
Structured, multilevel-labeled datasets of healthy and ocular disease patients are curated specifically for precision AI development from:
- Primary eye care (real-world; updated as of March 2025)
- The details: 786k paired optical coherence tomography (OCT) and color fundus photography (CFP) images from 250k patients (497k eyes) obtained across the U.S. and Australia
- Primary care screening (real-world; updated as of March 2025)
- The details: 386k CFP images from 146k patients (291k eyes) with diabetes undergoing eye disease screening in primary care settings
- Multimodal healthy eyes (clinical study data; updated as of August 2023)
- The details: Imaging from several devices totaling 2.2k images from 356 patients (712 eyes) and clinical data on visual acuity; intraocular pressure; central corneal thickness; and axial length data
Nice! What else do researchers have access to through this?
IDHea is part of the Topcon Healthcare Innovation Center (THINC), an arm of the company that also includes:
- THINC Ventures
- Investment company for early to growth-stage startups developing technologies leveraging eye care data for improved patient outcomes
- THINC Incubator and Accelerator
- Provides quick and cost-effective development and testing for new health technologies
And the big-picture purpose?
Two words: data standardization.
As Anthony Khawaja, PhD, chair of the IDHea’s independent data access and governance committee, noted, Topcon’s platform will “significantly reduce the current limitations for innovations that the proprietary formats of ophthalmic data impose.”
Even further, this latest advancement towards the company’s Healthcare from the Eye initiative is bringing Topcon one step closer towards its digital health solutions mission.
Very cool … so how can I start requesting datasets?
Click here to begin the process.