I-SCREEN General Assembly: Reflecting on progress and setting goals for 2025

On November 22, 2024, the I-SCREEN project held its 2nd General Assembly Meeting, bringing together all partners to review achievements and outline objectives for the coming year. The meeting was a productive session packed with updates from various work packages and insightful discussions.

Highlights of 2024 achievements:

• Successful Kick-off: The project began in January with a strong virtual kick-off meeting, followed by the establishment of key deliverables, including the setting up the clinical study, preparing all the ethics requirements for each clinical site and the setting up the project I-SCREEN website.
• Development milestones: RetInSight launched the first version of its cAIre web app for clinical data collection as part of WP3 (Image collection and screening algorithm for intermediate/atrophic AMD detection by a cloud-based platform), while the Medical University of Vienna secured ethics approvals for the SUDETES and APENNINES studies.
• Innovative study approvals: The community-based PYRENEES study, a novel shared-care approach, received ethics approval in multiple sites, marking a significant step toward interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Collaborative network expansion: ECCO finalised a robust network of 21 optometrist sites across seven European countries.
• First In-Person meeting: Partners convened face-to-face in Vienna in May, fostering stronger collaboration.

Looking ahead to 2025:

The assembly underscored the importance of shared-care models in revolutionising community-based healthcare and celebrated the project’s recognition as a leading EU-funded initiative. With ambitious plans for the next year, I-SCREEN continues to set a high standard in innovative eye care and research.

Speaking at the General Assembly, I-SCREEN coordinator Professor Ursula Schmidt-Erfurth from Medical University of Vienna highlighted the project's transformative mission, stating: “We aim to prevent vision loss and educate patients about the condition they are experiencing. Many mistakenly attribute their disease to ageing, but we strive to empower them with knowledge. By highlighting the importance of early detection, we can offer hope, showcase progress, and promote effective strategies to prevent disease progression. When community members are well-informed, they become empowered patients who can actively engage in their own care."