Technology startup Deya is collaborating with the Illinois College of Optometry (ICO) on a new sponsorship agreement to support an artificial intelligence (AI)-based research project.
First, let’s get a look at Deya.
Operating as a healthcare technology company, Deya is led by an executive team of eyecare providers—co-founder and CEO Jovi Boparai, MD and Chief Medical Officer Scott Jens, OD, FAAO—and technology experts.
And in recent news: The AI-powered “connected (eye)care” platform recently emerged from stealth mode to launch its website and mobile-first system for remote eye monitoring.
Tell me more about this platform.
Deya refers to Deya Imaging as an “extension of the eye clinic through the phone, with the patient accessing their doctor through an app and the doctor receiving insights in a web browser portal.”
More plainly: The platform uses a patient smartphone app and an AI-powered “doctor hub” (more on that later) to allow ECPs to asynchronously manage acute and chronic anterior segment eye conditions.
Explain how it works.
The first component to this system is the Deya Patient app, which allows patients to log and track their daily symptoms and treatment compliance.
- Also via the app: Patients can capture high-resolution eye images (“eye selfies,” as the company refers to them) from the back camera using Deya’s AI voice-guided image capture mechanism.
- The patient data collected through the app is then processed via Deya’s cloud-based, ECP-trained AI and sent to the patient’s ECP as weekly progress reports.
- To note: This dataset of captured eye images also forms the foundation for its AI models and diagnostic capabilities.
Those progress reports are accessible in the second piece to this system: the aforementioned Deya Doctor Hub.
Hone in on that ECP-trained AI for a moment.
Deya’s AI large language model (LLM) is trained on real-world clinical scenarios and informed by patient data—with its dataset of captured eye images forming the foundation for its AI models and diagnostic capabilities.
Among these:
- Monitoring existing diagnoses
- Detecting new conditions
- Personalizing patient care
- Includes LLM-developed recommended patient messaging
- Making clinical decisions
Got it. Now explain the Doctor Hub portion of this platform.
The Deya Doctor Hub is essentially a web browser portal ECPs can log into at their convenience to review patients’ progress as well as that AI-developed patient messaging.
At the crux of this are a few key advantages for ECPs:
- They have full control over making an official diagnosis and prognosis as well as patient messaging for any treatment and clinical decisions.
- They do not need to see a patient in-person or virtually.
- They determine the frequency of a patient’s remote monitoring.
- They can also bill digital eVisit CPT codes for each 7-day period of patient monitoring.
See here for more on the platform’s process.
Next up: this ICO sponsorship.
Deya Imaging is the focus of a new project launching out of the ICO’s Dr. Newton K. Wesley Research Center, in which the system will be used to collect anterior segment eye images via a smartphone’s high-definition camera.
Heading up the project:
- Yi Pang, OD, PhD, FAAO (professor of optometry; associate dean for research)
- Jennifer Harthan, OD, FAAO, FSLS (professor of optometry; chief, Cornea Center for Excellence)
- Erica Ittner, OD (associate professor of optometry; chief, Urgent Eye Care Services)
The research goal: To further advance the system as an AI clinical decision support (CDS) tool).
- Some background: Deya previously shared plans to kick off alpha and beta testing of its platform in Q4 2025 and Q2 2026, respectively, with the intent to achieve electronic health record (EHR) integrations in 2026—and a full market launch by H2 2026.
Duly noted. And how will the system be utilized?
ICO investigators will first use the system's smartphone auto-capture system (via that patient app) to acquire images of anterior segment diseases and contact lens positional findings.
They’ll then submit the images to a HIPAA-compliant cloud repository that stores Deya’s AI system training data.
- To note: Specifics were not provided on the patients whose imaging and data will be captured and studied.
More AI training?
Ongoing, actually. This training encompasses a standardized labeling process that is overseen by Deya’s Drs. Jens and Boparai (CMO and CEO, respectively).
Deya noted that the labeling process is intended to help advance its AI image analysis engine in offering the “most effective clinical decision support” for Deya Imaging users.
And from a broader standpoint?
The general purpose behind this research project: to further enhance Deya’s AI system in its capability to detect eye findings and conditions.
- The company also emphasized that this is (to their knowledge) “the only known such project that leverages smartphone-acquired anterior segment images for CDS guidance.”
Impressive! So how long will this project run?
Through the end of the year (2026).
Also worth noting: It’s just one of almost 150 ongoing research studies ICO is currently involved in.