A hospital in Xinxiang, Henan province, has been using artificial intelligence since September to screen people with diabetes for a complication that can gradually destroy their eyesight. Organizers hope the charity-backed pilot can be copied in other cities.
The program, which will last until December, targets diabetic retinopathy, one of the most common complications of diabetes. It has been run by the Chinese Foundation for Lifeline Express together with Xinxiang First People's Hospital and other medical institutions in the city. Its first results were reviewed at a meeting at the hospital ahead of World Diabetes Day on Nov 14, the 20th observance of the day since the United Nations recognized it.
China had about 148 million adults with diabetes in 2024, according to the International Diabetes Federation's Diabetes Atlas. The number is rising as the population ages and lifestyles change.
Lifeline Express, best known for a hospital train that has provided free cataract surgery to more than 250,000 people since 1997, began screening for retinopathy in 2014. It has screened more than 310,000 people with diabetes since then, said Guo Wei, the foundation's secretary-general. About 23 percent had the condition, and nearly 3 percent had severe cases.
The risk grows with time. Studies cited by the foundation show retinopathy affects about 19 percent of patients who have had diabetes for less than five years, and more than 70 percent of those who have had it for over 15 years.
Li Jikun, 46, has had diabetes for more than a decade and controls it with medication and insulin injections. One morning he woke up unable to see properly.
