The team at DreamUp Vision, a Paris company devoted to solving blindness, has created software that can analyze images of a patient’s retina for earlier recognition of diseases that may cause blindness. According to information cited on the company’s website, about 80% of visual impairment is preventable.

The company’s focus is diabetic retinopathy, which can be diagnosed using retina analysis before symptoms begin to show in the later stage of the disease. Regular monitoring is a challenge because of the decreasing number of ophthalmologists, increasing prevalence of diabetes, and the fact that many patients with diabetes live in countries with little access to regular healthcare providers, according to information on the company's website.

DreamUp Vision’s technology uses deep learning algorithms, which draw on the power of Big Data analysis, to allow for recognition of retinal images with early signs of diabetic retinopathy.

DreamUp Vision was one of eight finalists in the Health and Wearable Technologies category of the SXSW Accelerator pitch competition.

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