The EyeVu Consortium for Global Neurosurgery.

Ophthalmoscopy is an indispensable tool for the diagnosis of papilloedema in people with suspected intracranial hypertension. The incidence of papilloedema varies depending on the underlying pathology,1Rigi M Almarzouqi SJ Morgan ML Lee AG Papilledema: epidemiology, etiology, and clinical management.Eye Brain. 2015; 7: 47-57PubMed Google Scholar but the condition is an objective sign suggesting CNS pathology and requiring urgent evaluation with neuroimaging. Nevertheless, specialist investigation, including access to practising opthalmologists and resources such as neuroimaging, is not always available in low-resource settings due to cost and barriers to accessing care.2Bastawrous A Hennig BD The global inverse care law: a distorted map of blindness.Br J Ophthalmol. 2012; 96: 1357-1358Crossref Scopus (32) Google Scholar, 3Smith BG Whiffin CJ Esene IN et al.Neurotrauma clinicians' perspectives on the contextual challenges associated with traumatic brain injury follow up in low-income and middle-income countries: a reflexive thematic analysis.PLoS One. 2022; 17e0274922Crossref Scopus (0) Google Scholar Smartphone-based ophthalmoscopy requires training or expertise by the examiner in the interpretation of retinal images.4Bastawrous A Giardini ME Bolster NM et al.clinical validation of a smartphone-based adapter for optic disc imaging in Kenya.JAMA Ophthalmol. 2016; 134: 151-158Crossref PubMed Scopus (102) Google Scholar However, in low-resource settings, such expertise might only be available at teritiary centres.3Smith BG Whiffin CJ Esene IN et al.Neurotrauma clinicians' perspectives on the contextual challenges associated with traumatic brain injury follow up in low-income and middle-income countries: a reflexive thematic analysis.PLoS One. 2022; 17e0274922Crossref Scopus (0) Google Scholar Artificial intelligence (AI) has shown promise in detecting various neuro-ophthalmological conditions, with considerable accuracy, without the requirement of specialist interpretation of fundoscopic images.5Leong YY Vasseneix C Finkelstein MT Milea D Najjar RP Artificial intelligence meets neuro-ophthalmology.Asia Pac J Ophthalmol (Phila). 2022; 11: 111-125Crossref PubMed Scopus (0) Google Scholar The EyeVu Consortium is a global neurosurgery initiative focusing on innovation, education, and capacity building. Our Consortium comprises medical and engineering students from Australia, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ireland, Italy, Libya, Malta, Nepal, Nigeria, Peru, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Türkiye, the UK, and Zambia. We are working to develop open-source, point-of-care diagnostic screening tools using smart-phone based ophthalmoscopy and AI to identify individuals with intracranial hypertension in low-resource settings. This initiative seeks to foster career-long relationships and international collaborations, empowering the next generation of neurosurgeons and innovators by providing direct experience of engineering design processes, rapid prototyping, federated health networks, and primary and secondary research designs. EyeVu are supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Global Health Research Group on Acquired Brain and Spine Injury, with work undertaken in collaboration with students and academics from the University of Cambridge Engineering, the Cambridge Centre for Global Equality, Cambridge i-Teams, and Cambridge Enterprise. These organisations provide pivotal clinical and translational expertise to ensure the rigorous development and implementation of the technology in the longer term. The coming months hold great excitement as the next generation of junior neurosurgeons and innovators begin their projects with their peers. We look forward to reflecting on the Consortium's success in the years to come. This work was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Global Health Research Group on Acquired Brain and Spine Injury (grant number NIHR132455) using aid from the UK Government to support global health research. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NIHR or the UK Government. AGK and PJH are supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, the NIHR Brain Injury MedTech Co-Operative. BGS, TB, AGK, and PJH are supported by the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Acquired Brain and Spine Injury. PJH is also supported by a NIHR Senior Investigator award and by the Royal College of Surgeons of England. LR is supported by an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship.