Optain Health, a startup that built artificial-intelligence-powered retinal screening technology, acquired EyePACS to add its teleophthalmology network and expand access to eye disease screening in primary care.
The combination of Optain’s next-generation robotic retinal imaging and EyePACS’ nationwide teleophthalmology network will expand access to early disease detection for communities across the U.S. and worldwide, executives said. The companies' shared mission is to prevent avoidable blindness and improve patient care at scale through earlier disease detection.
EyePACS’ nationwide footprint and Optain’s growing deployments across major health systems create a strengthened, combined market footprint, executives said. Optain’s platform is now live at 200 provider sites globally, with more than 1,000 deployments in planning, including seven U.S. health systems and one of the nation’s largest primary care groups. Optain plans to broaden its reach to additional health systems and community programs.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In September, Optain closed an oversubscribed $26 million series A funding round led by software investor Insight Partners with participation from existing investors. It also picked up a $12 million seed round in 2023.
Optain was co-created in 2023 by startup studio Aegis Ventures and Northwell Holdings. Optain Health uses AI, robotic retinal imaging and teleophthalmology to spot early signs of disease using only images of a patient’s eye.
EyePACS launched out of the University of California, San Francisco in 2003, and, over the past two decades, has supported community-based eye disease screening across more than 740 clinical sites, including federally qualified health centers, county health systems and home health programs. The network has identified more than 140,000 cases of severe sight-threatening disease among 1.5 million patients screened, according to Jorge Cuadros, Ph.D., CEO of EyePACS.
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Optain partnered with EyePACS for two years, and the acquisition creates a more comprehensive product that combines "rapid robotic imaging, specialist multi-condition grading and seamless integration, making early detection possible for millions of patients," Jeff Dunkel, CEO of Optain Health, said.
Over time, Optain will make significant investments to integrate and improve both platforms, executives said.
Optain developed a single, noninvasive test that can be run anywhere. Its platform includes a lightweight, portable robotic camera that captures retinal images rapidly without requiring pupil dilation and is designed to be used at the point of care. The platform also provides multilingual patient guidance to reach diverse communities.
"Optain is a front-line screening company. We specialize in the ability to create technology that goes into primary care, internal medicine and endocrinology settings to do screening, which is an area where, historically, we have tried to force big, complex instruments or force patients to go downstream into referrals, both of which have proven to be rather inefficient for a national screening level. We're trying to fix that," Dunkel told Fierce Healthcare in an interview.
With Optain's platform, integrated AI workflows detect sight-threatening eye diseases—including diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration—and also assess cardiovascular disease risk. In the U.S., Optain delivers rapid teleophthalmology grading to screen for diabetic retinopathy and more.
The combined platform offers specialist multicondition grading including diabetic retinopathy and other conditions, seamless integration with all major U.S. EHR systems and scalable analytics to support population health programs.
"We are thrilled to join Optain, an emerging leader in retinal imaging and artificial intelligence,” Cuadros said. “We now have a unique and exceptional turnkey solution to provide fast, effective, and complete retinal exams for our primary care partners around the world. Our combined reach enables us to make meaningful progress in closing care gaps.”
Optain's technology expands access to oculomics, which is the science of using the eye as a window into whole body health, into primary care, optometry and other settings, with minimal specialist staffing or workflow disruption.
"We have a thesis that is proving to resonate within the healthcare systems, which is, if you really want to do screening well, you need to do three things. First, you have to provide clinical value. Second is you need to have a fiscal ROI, which means you need to be affordable. And then third, you need to have ease of use. It has to be very, very simple. We have an overburdened and overtaxed primary care network in the U.S.," Dunkel said.
"In order to make that thesis work, we knew that we needed a fast robotic camera that's automated and speaks seven languages. We also knew that we needed to make things work within the reimbursement so that our partners could see a positive outcome on the financials. You don't want a negative disincentive to screen patients. We also wanted clinical value. The clinical value is really where EyePACS stand up," he said.
There are many companies using AI to screen for specific diseases. Optain's ambition is to redefine how retinal imaging can enable earlier, noninvasive detection of systemic disease. The acquisition combines both companies' research programs—EyePACS has long championed community-based screening and data-driven quality improvement along with Optain’s oculomics research.
"There's so much information in a retinal image. It's really a window to the body," said Zachary Tan, M.D., president of Optain. "It's the only part of the body where we can directly see blood vessels and neurological tissue. The ability to analyze a retinal image for different diseases, both eye diseases, and then for us, as Optain, looking to the future systemic diseases as well, like heart disease, stroke, kidney disease is really making Optain unique."