Translational Retinal Imaging

The diagnosis and treatment of medical retinal disease is now inseparable from retinal imaging in all its multimodal incarnations. The purpose of this article is to present a selection of very different retinal imaging techniques that are truly translational, in the sense that they are not only new, but can guide us to new understandings of disease processes or interventions that are not accessible by present methods. Quantitative autofluorescence imaging, now available for clinical investigation, has already fundamentally changed our understanding of the role of lipofuscin in age-related macular degeneration. Hyperspectral autofluorescence imaging is bench science poised not only to unravel the molecular basis of retinal pigment epithelium fluorescence, but also to be translated into a clinical camera for earliest detection of age-related macular degeneration. The ophthalmic endoscope for vitreous surgery is a radically new retinal imaging system that enables surgical approaches heretofore impossible while it captures subretinal images of living tissue. Remote retinal imaging coupled with deep learning artificial intelligence will transform the very fabric of future medical care.