色情视频

Ehsan Vaghefi has been a guide all his life. After all, when other children his age were being helped across the street by their parents, he was helping his blind father across roads.

Vaghefi is now a senior lecturer in the University of 色情视频鈥檚 as well as co-founder and CEO of the UniServices-backed startup , a social enterprise that recently raised $3.6 million to bring its retina-scanning AI software to market.

That means he鈥檚 on the cusp of achieving his life鈥檚 goal: helping prevent blindness on a large scale.

Vaghefi knows he鈥檚 just starting to see success as an entrepreneur. However, he鈥檚 learned a lot and is keen to help others who might be a step or two behind in commercialising their research.

Vaghefi鈥檚 father was just a four-year-old boy in Iran when he lost his vision to congenital glaucoma. Had the disease been diagnosed and treated early, his vision could have been saved. 

鈥淎ll my academic and professional life has been driven by that story,鈥� says Vaghefi.

After a master鈥檚 degree in biomedical engineering at the University of New South Wales, Vaghefi began doctoral studies at the University of 色情视频 to research eye imaging. He stayed on after his PhD to teach and continue his research. His work resulted in 45 peer-reviewed papers and three patents. Still, he wasn鈥檛 satisfied.

Most vision loss is treatable, but only if it鈥檚 caught early enough. One common cause is diabetic retinopathy, in which high blood sugar damages the tiny blood vessels in the retina. 

In 色情视频, nearly 300,000 people live with diabetes. Only half of them are being screened yearly as they should be. The result is that, all too commonly, vision loss is caught only when patients are almost blind, says Vaghefi.

Currently, screening relies on bulky, expensive equipment, which means it鈥檚 largely confined to larger centres. Specially trained clinicians must also interpret the images one by one. 

 The system Vaghefi envisions involves simpler equipment sending images to a national, centralised AI system for immediate analysis. This would mean screening could be done in any shopping centre optometry shop or even through mobile clinics.

鈥淎I excels at pattern recognition, so we鈥檝e taught our software what a healthy retina looks like and what an unhealthy diabetic retina looks like,鈥� says Vaghefi. 鈥淚t can also grade the severity of disease. The information is sent back right away, so within seconds, the optometrist who took the image in Invercargill or wherever knows what to do with that patient.鈥�

Toku Eyes is currently trialling its technology in several locations in 色情视频. The next step? The world. The use of AI reduces time, cost and staffing pressures and increases access by reducing location barriers. These factors could be game-changers in low- to middle-income countries.

The company is now looking to move into Africa, the Pacific, and South and Southeast Asia, in part through partnership with KeraLink, a U.S.-based not-for-profit organisation dedicated to making treatment for corneal disease accessible to all. 

鈥淭hese aren鈥檛 markets we鈥檙e going into because we鈥檙e after profit; it鈥檚 something we want to do because we want to make a difference,鈥� says Vaghefi. 

Despite Vaghefi鈥檚 technical expertise, he had no background in business until he co-founded Toku Eyes three years ago. Now, to encourage other researchers to follow a similar path, he鈥檚 sharing some of the lessons he鈥檚 learned the hard way.

First, 鈥�don鈥檛 sit on your idea,鈥� says Vaghefi. 鈥淵ou can be sure that somewhere, someone is thinking about the same things. Patent your idea and create a proof of concept as soon as possible.鈥� UniServices helped in the patenting process when he initially had no idea how to go about it, he adds.

As an entrepreneur, be prepared to work hard and 鈥渄o everything,鈥� says Vaghefi. 鈥淵ou have to be the coder, the product tester, the person negotiating the deal.鈥�

To grow, though, 鈥�you need the right team around you,鈥� says Vaghefi. 鈥淥nce you鈥檝e got some seed funding, that鈥檚 the time to grow your team.鈥�

Listen to quality advice from team members and outside sources. When he was raising initial seed funding, a Return on Science investment committee provided valuable insight on going abroad, says Vaghefi. However, when he returned for more money, the advice was tougher to swallow.

鈥淭hey said, 鈥榊ou don鈥檛 need to raise money here anymore because you鈥檙e past this stage; you have to go outside.鈥� At the time, it hurt a lot, but it got me to play at a different level,鈥� says Vaghefi.