An on-the-spot AI eye check nearly doubled specialist visits for people with diabetes in Tanzania

At 24 hospitals in northern Tanzania, people with diabetes got their eye-screening result from AI before leaving the room, plus a face-to-face talk about what it meant. Among those who needed a specialist, 35.9% went within eight weeks, compared with 18.2% of people who heard by phone weeks later. Tanzania's health ministry plans to expand AI eye screening.

Diabetic retinopathy gives little warning. High blood sugar damages tiny blood vessels at the back of the eye, and by the time vision blurs, some sight can be gone for good. In northern Tanzania, people with diabetes can get their eyes photographed at their regular clinic. The hard part has been the next step: actually getting to the eye specialist.

In the usual setup, the photos went back to Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre for a doctor to grade, and results came by phone, typically two to four weeks later. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and KCMC, working with Tanzania's Ministry of Health, randomly assigned 2,378 adults at 24 hospitals to that pathway or an AI-supported one.

The clever bit

The clever bit is timing. An AI grading program, picked partly because it works offline, read the retinal photos during the visit. So staff could sit down with each person before they left, explain the result, answer questions and hand over a referral on the spot.

Among the 904 people whose photos showed sight-threatening disease, 157 of 437 in the AI group (35.9%) reached the eye clinic within eight weeks, compared with 85 of 467 (18.2%) in the usual pathway. People who went after AI screening got there in about 11 days on average, versus about 37.

Using AI in a diabetic eye screening programme in Tanzania enabled patients to receive their result along with face-to-face counselling at the point of screening, giving people the opportunity to ask questions, understand treatment options and feel supported in their care.

— Dr Charles Cleland, ophthalmologist and clinical research fellow, International Centre for Eye Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, via lshtm.ac.uk

Hooray

Hooray: nearly twice as many people with sight-threatening diabetic eye disease made it to the specialist, and they got there weeks sooner.

What comes next

Tanzania's Ministry of Health, a partner on the study, has committed to adding AI diagnostics to diabetic eye screening in several regions, with no timetable announced yet. The researchers say specialist clinics and treatment need to grow alongside screening. The open question is whether more clinic visits turn into more treatment and saved sight.

How solid is it?

Promising: Results measured in a study or bounded trial. Limitations and wider testing still matter.

Peer-reviewed randomized controlled trial · 2,378 adults with diabetes at 24 hospitals in Tanzania's Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions (March 2023–August 2024). Cleland, Burton and colleagues (LSHTM and Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre), The Lancet Global Health, published October 12, 2026; ISRCTN18317152. Primary outcome: specialist eye clinic attendance within 8 weeks among 904 people with true referable diabetic retinopathy, as judged by masked UK-certified graders.

See for yourself.

Selected for Oct 15, 2026. Reviewed Oct 15, 2026, 6:29 AM MT. Source dates may be earlier than this edition.