Join our research network as an optometry practice

The invitation: 

We’re inviting optometrists and optical care providers to partner with us in building the world’s most advanced retinal imaging (fundus and OCT) database to develop novel digital tools and techniques to enhance and expand the range of services that can be offered by optometry practices in the future.

The vision:

We’re building a secure, de-identified database of retinal imaging for up to 500,000 participants to enable research groups to develop:

• AI tools to assist in early detection, staging, and classification of multiple diseases.
• New clinical pathways to streamline referral triage and quality benchmarking.
• Longitudinal analysis of disease progression in real-world settings.

What we’re offering our partners:

1 - Simple, Secure Participation

• Easy-to-use, secure software platform.
• Low requirement on workflow.
• Web-based participant consent platform. 

2 - Ethical & Legal Compliance

• Our research protocol has been reviewed by UK’s Health Research Authority’s Research Ethics Committee ((HRA REC) and granted Favourable Opinion (Reference 23/EE/0216).
• Compliant with UK GDPR, ICO guidance, and NHS digital health standards.
• Foresight is a charity-led initiative 
• All images are de-identified at source and encrypted – researchers never access identifiable data. 

3 - Compensation

• We offer a compensation structure for partnering optometry practices

Tangible Benefits for Your Practice:

• Differentiation: Demonstrate to your customers that your practice is engaged in a national research initiative, aimed at improving eye and systemic health through eye scans.
• Early Access to Innovation: Be part of a select group to pilot or benefit from novel AI-assisted tools supporting triage, risk scoring, and referral aid – initially for eye conditions and then to systemic conditions in the future.
• Co-authorship: Opportunities to be acknowledged or co-author peer-reviewed research and case studies.
• Optional Compensation: For partner practices there is a compensation structure in place.

Technical requirements

1. Operate a compatible OCT + Fundus platform:

• Topcon: Maestro 1, Maestro 2, Trito
• Optopol: Revo FC
• Heidelberg: Spectralis
• Nidek: RS-3000, ScanDuo, RS-1 Glauvas

2. Imaging equipment computer connected to the internet and Minimum internet upload speed 1 Mbps (https://www.speedtest.net/ to check your upload speed).

3. Fundus photo and OCT data to be collected according to Foresight SOP (we will provide).