AI Trust Survey Wants Optometrists' Real Views
A survey most optometrists will never hear about is trying to find out what independents actually think of the AI tools already sitting in their consulting rooms.
Retinal screening AI has gone from lab demo to daily clinical use in about five years. IDx-DR, EyeArt, OasisAI Retina Check, OCT-integrated modules — most of it arrived with thin evidence specifically in UK and Malaysian populations. It seems no one asked the people actually running these tools what they think of them.
Who gets asked, and who doesn't
A new study from the University of Leicester and Malaysian ophthalmic practice OasisEye is trying to fix that gap. Optometrists, dispensing opticians, ophthalmologists and GPs in the UK and Malaysia are invited to take a short, anonymous online survey — about ten minutes — covering how much they trust AI diagnostic tools, whether they think the tools are clinically useful, and how reliable they consider the validation behind them.
Primary author Raees Ismail put his finger on the actual problem with most research in this space: it conflates ophthalmologists with retinal specialists and leaves out GPs and optometrists entirely. Those are exactly the people running community screening AI day-to-day.
Why this matters for independents specifically
A corporate multiple can hand an AI rollout decision to a regional clinical governance team. An independent practice owner makes that call themselves — which tool to buy, how much to trust its output, what it means for their patients and their liability. That's a bigger stake in getting the evidence right.
This survey is one of the few chances independents get to have their actual clinical experience counted, rather than assumed by someone else's research design. The study is also comparing the UK against Malaysia — different funding models, different regulation — which should tell us something about whether AI trust is really about the technology or about the system around it.
The survey closes 30 September. You can complete it here: AI in Eye Care Survey.
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