Catherine Bornbaum, PhD, MBA, Chief Business Officer at RetiSpec, says retinal biomarkers and artificial intelligence can reshape diagnosis and care in optometry in conversation with AI in Eye Care professional co-editor Scot Morris, OD. The conversation dives straight into diagnostic algorithms that augment clinicians, the rise of oculomics as a window into systemic health and the work required to turn early detection into meaningful care. The goal of oculomics is to develop rapid, noninvasive, cost-effective biomarkers to screen and diagnose systemic diseases.
Dr. Bornbaum says, “We are at a really interesting inflection point right now.” She frames diagnostic AI as a practical enhancement rather than a replacement: it acts as “a second opinion for a clinician.” She says AI is “looking at lots of images, detecting patterns of early disease and flagging things for a clinician who can take a look, see if they agree and take next steps as relevant.” Those early signals can prompt closer monitoring and earlier intervention.
Because the retina provides noninvasive access to information about cardiovascular, neurological and metabolic systems, eye-based biomarkers could drive new approaches to diagnosis. This could eventually lead to developing treatments targeted at the earliest stages of disease. Dr. Bornbaum says this “can help identify early signs of disease before we would normally catch them in our standard workflows.”
“We can apply these same biomarkers to help understand how treatments are progressing and who might be a good candidate for one treatment over another,” she continues. “I think we’re just on the cusp of what’s possible between rigorous science and new technologies that we’re able to unlock through AI and the eye.”
Oculomics-Driven Screening and Intervention
Dr. Bornbaum’s work at RetiSpec showcases exactly what tapping into AI can do. RetiSpec uses AI-driven retinal imaging to detect neurodegenerative markers linked with Alzheimer’s for earlier, broader screening.
“What’s coming down the pipeline is second tier diagnostics; we’re leveraging information that’s already available in the body that clinicians can’t necessarily access right now through traditional means,” she explains.
Dr. Bornbaum points to optometry as a logical entry point because AI capability creates a “unique opportunity to leverage insights about systemic health where optometrists can be that first point of access.”
She says that AI-enabled retinal screening provides “additional information that can both detect things much earlier but also provide routine checkups and see: Is this progressing to a point where we do need to take clinical action?” That continuous monitoring could shift medicine from crisis fixes to ongoing, personalized management. “A lot of conditions are diagnosed just way too late; they’re very complex, they’re very expensive, they’re burdensome to the patients and clinicians, and we can do better on that,” she says.
Collaborating for a Better Future
According to Dr. Bornbaum, the key to taking this technology to the next level is working together. “The future of AI adoption and health care requires strong collaboration and partnerships,” she says.
Dr. Bornbaum encourages using existing infrastructure for AI rather than creating an entirely new framework for it. She says, “You don’t necessarily need a whole new infrastructure when you can leverage what already exists, maybe by adding something onto it, or just layering in software.” Collaboration and integration supports the diagnostic hubs, telemedicine and mobile clinics to reach patients outside major centers.
Dr. Bornbaum warns against rushing unvalidated tools into clinical decision-making. “We have to be very careful here to ensure that the information that people are making health decisions based on is reliable, is valid, and is trustworthy,” she says.
She calls for rigorous science and clinician oversight so AI-driven signals translate into safe, actionable care. “We have a huge potential that we are just beginning to tap into,” Bornbaum says. The challenge is turning that potential into validated tools and integrated workflows that deliver earlier, actionable insights to patients everywhere.
For more on this conversation, listen to this episode of Real Talk.
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