Google ARDA retinal AI crosses one million patients screened

Google's diabetic retinopathy screening model has crossed one million patients across hospitals in India, Thailand and Australia, according to a Comment published 23 September 2026 in Nature Medicine.

The piece is a deployment write-up, not a new model paper. Its three anchor sites are the Aravind Eye Care System in Madurai, Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok, and Lions Outback Vision at the Lions Eye Institute in Western Australia. Corresponding author Richa Tiwari of Google writes with co-authors including Paisan Ruamviboonsuk of Rajavithi Hospital and Angus Turner of the Lions Eye Institute.

The abstract states the frame plainly: "Scaling a successful deep learning tool across three highly distinct settings – in India, Thailand and Australia — offers cross-cutting insights that may inform the expansion of healthcare artificial intelligence globally."

The tool is Google's Automated Retinal Disease Assessment, or ARDA. Rather than operating screenings itself, Google licenses it to three commercial partners, Forus Health, AuroLab and Perceptra, which run the service at no cost to patients, according to prior reporting on the licensing arrangement. The company has previously set a target of six million AI-supported screenings across India and Thailand within ten years. Two researchers we track posted the paper the day it ran.

The work was funded by Alphabet Inc. Paisan Ruamviboonsuk declared consulting relationships with Roche, Biocon Biologics, Abbott, 4DMT and Bayer.

Per-site accuracy figures and patient-outcome numbers are not in the parts of the Comment available without subscription.