University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is mapping the human eye with GIS & FME to assess the progression of genetic eye diseases and the effectiveness of trial treatments.

FME & GIS map and analyse the human eye to measure how diseases change cells, and to monitor experimental treatments. For one clinical trial, FME georeferenced raster images, generated polygons, and overlapped them to identify disease progression. For another, FME performed various analyses including creation of terrain profiles, classifications, and axial lines, which were used to quantify changes in the disease processes. Outputs have also included digitised CSV files, extruded 3D models, and 3D PDFs.

As ophthalmic imaging contains spatial features, using software designed for spatial data has allowed the team to draw more information from their data and develop innovative ways to analyse it. They plan to expand the work to other diseases, and have interest from others in the field.

Oxford University Hospitals is a world renowned centre of clinical excellence and one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the UK.

“Using FME to create a visualization of patients’ vision has been helpful in not only allowing us to see changes over time, but also in explaining to patients what the test results are.” -- Jasleen Kaur Jolly, MSc BSc(Hons) MCOptom, Oxford Eye Hospital