Michael Abramoff

Michael David Abràmoff (born 1963) is an American neuroscientist, ophthalmologist, vitreoretinal surgeon, computer engineer, and entrepreneur. He is the Watzke Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa.

Early life and education
Abràmoff was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and received his MD and MS (information theory) from the University of Amsterdam. Abràmoff did his graduate research, leading to a Ph.D. in machine learning, at the University of Utrecht.

Scientific and medical career
He is inventor on over 60 US and international patents and patent applications primarily related to machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and imaging Abràmoff was one of the early developers of ImageJ, a Java-based image processing program. He was the initiator behind the Iowa Reference Algorithms, a series of reference algorithms for OCT segmentation.

Abràmoff has been a proponent of the theory that diabetes complications in the eye and brain are neural, not vascular, in origin, based on his team's earlier finding that microvascular biomarkers of diabetic damage in the retina only occur after neurodegenerative changes. Additionally, Abràmoff has been part of the Moonshot team (formally known as Restoring Vision: A JDRF Moonshot Initiative) from the outset. Abràmoff started working on autonomous AI for diagnosis of retinal diseases during his residency in 1997, which led to the publishing of Low Level Screening of Exudates and Hemorrhages in Background Diabetic Retinopathy in 2000 and many other papers. This research led to him receiving the nickname "The Retinator" in an Ophthalmology Times editorial in 2010, referring to the work he had done to create the first autonomous AI diagnostic system. Roughly a decade later, the medical community's stance on healthcare AI had evolved, as evidenced by a 2019 American Medical Association (AMA) article on Abràmoff, titled This Ophthalmologist is Doing Health Care AI the Right Way.

Abràmoff began working with regulators in 2010 to develop a process by which to introduce autonomous AI in healthcare. During that time, with his coworkers he developed "metrics for ethics" as a concept, as well as an ethical framework for healthcare AI, which led to an ongoing series of papers published through the Foundational Principles of Algorithmic Interpretation workgroup.

After working with the FDA for over 8 years under this framework, de novo clearance was granted to the autonomous AI product, IDx-DR (now LumineticsCore) on April 18, 2018, created by the company Abràmoff founded in 2010, Digital Diagnostics (formerly IDx) of Coralville Iowa. That marked the first time that an autonomous diagnostic platform was cleared by the FDA in any field of medicine, so that patients could legally be diagnosed by a computer rather than by a human. Abràmoff credits this achievement as well the subsequent national reimbursement, coding, and quality measurement, as well as widespread support by all healthcare stakeholders, on the ethical framework for AI in healthcare. This work continues in collaboration with both FDA and other US and international regulatory authorities as well as CMS and other payor organizations including publication of an ethically founded AI reimbursement framework.

Abràmoff is a founding member of FDA's Collaborative Community on Ophthalmic Imaging (CCOI), which was formed in 2019. Abràmoff also chairs the Foundational Principles of Ophthalmic Imaging and Algorithmic Interpretation (FPOAI) Workgroup. In 2019, Abràmoff founded the AI Healthcare Coalition and serves as Executive Secretary, focusing on the policy implications of healthcare AI.

Business career
Abràmoff founded three companies, EyeCheck, a teleretinal diabetic retinopathy screening company in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and i-Optics, an ophthalmic device company.

In 2010, Abràmoff founded IDx Technologies, Inc., which has since rebranded as Digital Diagnostics of which he is Executive Chairman.

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

In January 2018, the results of a clinical trial for the first autonomous AI in primary care were submitted to FDA, exceeding its pre-specified superiority endpoints for diagnostic accuracy. FDA assigned the LumineticsCore (then IDx-DR) system breakthrough device status for expedited review. In April 2018 FDA granted De Novo authorization to market this product in the US.

Abràmoff has been called a "Renaissance Man" by Retina Physician for creating a simple and more efficient process of autonomous AI for the retina that is in the best interest of the patient.

In 2018, Abràmoff testified for the Federal Trade Commission on AI Predictive Analytics Through Real World Applications.

Personal life
Abràmoff served as an interviewer for Spielberg's Shoah Visual History Project.

Awards and honours

 * 2019 Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)