Michael Abramoff

Abràmoff was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and received his MD and MS (information theory) from the University of Amsterdam.[5] He was a research fellow in the Neural Networks lab at RIKEN, Tokyo, Japan. He was Director of R&D at Prodix SA, an image analysis company in Paris, France. He performed his residency in ophthalmology at the University of Utrecht Academic Hospital, and his vitreoretinal fellowship at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. He did his graduate research leading to a Ph.D. in medical image analysis at the University of Utrecht.[6]

Abràmoff is referred to as "The Retinator," a nickname given to him in an Ophthalmology Times article,[7] referring to the work he has done on improving automated medical diagnostic algorithms.[8] One of his keynote addresses was on the role autonomous AI can play in improving healthcare productivity for SPIE Medical Imaging.[9]

Abràmoff is the author of over 300 peer-reviewed research articles, and his work has been cited over 34,000 times, leading to an h-index of 63 (Google Scholar).[10] He is inventor on 19 US and international patents and patent applications primarily related to retinal imaging and machine learning.[11] Abramoff was also one of the early developers of ImageJ.[12][13]

On November 27, 2020, Dr. Abramoff was named in James Gardner’s keynote address to the Societa' Oftalmologica Italiana,[14] “Key Persons Who Have Advanced the Understanding of Diabetic Retinopathy.”

Abràmoff founded three companies, EyeCheck, a teleretinal diabetic retinopathy screening company in Amsterdam, the Netherlands,[15] and i-Optics, an ophthalmic device company.[16] In 2010, he founded IDx LLC,[17] IDx, Technologies, Inc. now Digital Diagnostics[18] of which he is currently Executive Chairman.

In March 2016, IDx announced an Alliance for Eye Health with IBM Watson.[19] In January 2018 the results of its pivotal clinical trial for an AI-based autonomous system to detect diabetic retinopathy in primary care were submitted to FDA,[20] exceeding its pre-specified superiority endpoints for diagnostic accuracy. FDA assigned it breakthrough device status for expedited review.[21] He has been dubbed a "Renaissance Man" by Retina Physician[22] by creating a simple and more efficient process of analyzing images that is in the best interest of the patient.[23] It received the first FDA marketing authorization for an autonomous diagnostic AI system in any field of medicine.[24]

On October 25, 2017, in a Congressional Briefing sponsored by the Science Coalition, Abràmoff joined a panel of companies that, like IDx, spun out of U.S. research universities. The panelists highlighted to lawmakers the value of putting federal funds toward academic research.[25]

On November 13, 2018, Abràmoff was invited by the Federal Trade Commission to be a panelist for a hearing Understanding Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, and Predictive Analytics Through Real World Applications. Abràmoff's panel explained how to do safe implementation of AI in medicine.[26]

Outside of the world of medicine and science, Abràmoff was an interviewer for Spielberg’s Shoah Visual History Project.[27] He contributed to the Vance Integral Edition.[28]

• 2020 University of Iowa Faculty/Staff Startup of the Year Award [29]
• 2020 MedTech Breakthrough Award: Best New Technology Award - Diabetes Management[30]
• 2019 Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electonics Engineers (IEEE)[31]
• 2019 CB Insights AI Top 100 list[32]
• 2019 America’s Cultivation Corridor, Iowa Biotech Leader Award [33]
• 2019 UI Carver College of Medicine Wall of Scholarship[34]
• 2019 Ophthalmologist Top 10 Powerlist of Top Inventors[35]
• 2018 Patent Award, University of Iowa Research Foundation[36]
• 2018 Fellow, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)[37]
• 2016 Charles D. Phelps Memorial Award for Glaucoma Research[38]
• 2013 Young Investigator Award, Macula Society[39]
• 2011 President’s Innovation Award, American Telemedicine Association[40]
• 2003 PG Binkhorst Award, "Objective Measurement of Motion in the Orbit"[41]
• 2001 New Venture Award, McKinsey Inc. / Verbond Nederlandse Ondernemers, Award for Best Business plan, Netherlands[41]
• 2002 3M-Jonkers Award[41]
• 1996 RSNA Cum Laude Award, Congress of the Radiological Society of North America[42]
• 1991 Peter Reichertz Prize for best young researcher, European Federation for Medical Informatics[41]

• Abràmoff, M.D.; Tobey, D.; Cher, D. (June 2020). "Lessons Learned About Autonomous AI: Finding a Safe, Efficacious, and Ethical Path Through the Development Process". Am J Ophtahl. 214: 134–142. doi:10.1016/j.ajo.2020.02.022. PMID 32171769.
• Abràmoff, M.D.; Lavin, P.T.; Birch, M; Shah, N.; Folk, J.C. (August 2018). "Pivotal trial of an autonomous AI-based diagnostic system for detection of diabetic retinopathy in primary care offices". Nature Digital Medicine. 1 (1): 39. doi:10.1038/s41746-018-0040-6. PMC 6550188. PMID 31304320.
• Parekh, Prashant K; Folk, James C; Gupta, Priya; Russell, Stephen R; Sohn, Elliott H; Abràmoff, Michael D. (March 2018). "Fluorescein Angiography Does Not Alter the Initial Clinical Management of Choroidal Neovascularization in Age-Related Macular Degeneration". Ophthalmology Retina. 2 (7): 659–666. doi:10.1016/j.oret.2018.01.002. PMC 7055156. PMID 31047374.
• Shah, Abhay; Lynch, Stephanie; Niemeijer, Meindert; Amelon, Ryan; Clarida, Warren; Folk, James; Russell, Stephen; Wu, Xiaodong; Abramoff, Michael David (April 2018). "Susceptibility to Misdiagnosis of Adversarial Images by Deep Learning Based Retinal Image Analysis Algorithms". Proceedings, IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging. IN PRESS.
• Lynch, Stephanie K.; Abràmoff, Michael D. (2017). "Diabetic retinopathy is a neurodegenerative disorder". Vision Research. 139: 101–107. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2017.03.003. PMC 5659971. PMID 28408138.
• Abràmoff, MD; Lou, Y; Erginay, A; Clarida, W; Amelon, R; Folk, JC; Niemeijer, M (2016). "Improved Automated Detection of Diabetic Retinopathy on a Publicly Available Dataset Through Integration of Deep Learning". Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 57 (13): 5200–5206. doi:10.1167/iovs.16-19964. PMID 27701631.
• Sohn, EH; van Dijk, HW; Jiao, C; Kok, PH; Jeong, W; Demirkaya, N; Garmager, A; Wit, F; Kucukevcilioglu, M; van Velthoven, ME; DeVries, JH; Mullins, RF; Kuehn, MH; Schlingemann, RO; Sonka, M; Verbraak, FD; Abràmoff, MD (2016). "Retinal neurodegeneration may precede microvascular changes characteristic of diabetic retinopathy in diabetes mellitus". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 113 (19): E2655–E2664. doi:10.1073/pnas.1522014113. PMC 4868487. PMID 27114552.
• Abràmoff, MD; Folk, JC; Han, DP; Walker, JD; Williams, DF; Russell, SR; et al. (2013). "Automated analysis of retinal images for detection of referable diabetic retinopathy". JAMA Ophthalmol. 131 (3): 351–357. doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2013.1743. PMID 23494039.
• Niemeijer, M; van Ginneken, B; Cree, MJ; Mizutani, A; Quellec, G; Sanchez, CI; Zhang, B; Hornero, R; Lamard, M; Muramatsu, C; Wu, XQ; Cazuguel, G; You, J; Mayo, A; Li, Q; Hatanaka, Y; Cochener, B; Roux, C; Karray, F; Garcia, M; Fujita, H; Abramoff, MD (2010). "Retinopathy Online Challenge: Automatic Detection of Microaneurysms in Digital Color Fundus Photographs". IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 29 (1): 185–195. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.608.3699. doi:10.1109/tmi.2009.2033909. PMID 19822469. S2CID 13770952.
• Abramoff, Michael D; Garvin, Mona K; Sonka, Milan (2010). "Retinal Imaging and Image Analysis". IEEE Reviews in Biomedical Engineering. 3: 169–208. doi:10.1109/RBME.2010.2084567. PMC 3131209. PMID 22275207.
• Garvin, MK; Abramoff, MD; Wu, X; Russell, SR; Burns, TL; Sonka, M (2009). "Automated 3-D Intraretinal Layer Segmentation of Macular Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography Images". IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 28 (9): 1436–1347. doi:10.1109/TMI.2009.2016958. PMC 2911837. PMID 19278927.
• Garvin, MK; Abramoff, MD; Kardon, R; Russell, SR; Wu, X; Sonka, M (2008). "Intraretinal layer segmentation of macular optical coherence tomography images using optimal 3-D graph search". IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 27 (10): 1495–1505. doi:10.1109/TMI.2008.923966. PMC 2614384. PMID 18815101.
• Niemeijer, M; van Ginneken, B; Russell, SR; Suttorp-Schulten, MS; Abramoff, MD (2007). "Automated detection and differentiation of drusen, exudates, and cotton-wool spots in digital color fundus photographs for diabetic retinopathy diagnosis". Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 48 (5): 2260–2267. doi:10.1167/iovs.06-0996. PMC 2739583. PMID 17460289.
• Niemeijer, M; van Ginneken, B; Staal, J; Suttorp-Schulten, MS; Abràmoff, MD (2005). "Automatic detection of red lesions in digital color fundus photographs". IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 24 (5): 584–592. doi:10.1109/tmi.2005.843738. PMID 15889546. S2CID 15175837.
• Niemeijer, M; Staal, J; Van Ginneken, B; Loog, M; Abràmoff, Michael D (2004). Fitzpatrick, J. Michael; Sonka, Milan (eds.). "Comparative study of retinal vessel segmentation methods on a new publicly available database". Proc SPIE Med Imag. Medical Imaging 2004: Image Processing. 5307: 648–656. doi:10.1117/12.535349. S2CID 43922199.
• Abramoff, Michael D (2004). "Image processing with ImageJ" (PDF). Biophotonics International. 11 (7): 36–42.

• Michael Abramoff at the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine