28 October 2025
The Scottish Collaborative Optometry-Ophthalmology Network eResearch (SCONe) project has reached a milestone moment – acquiring one million retinal images from optometry practices across Scotland.
The SCONe initiative aims to develop a repository of retinal images captured in community optometry practices as a clinical research resource for improving public health across the population.
The images are transferred to Public Health Scotland’s National Safe Haven – a secure data environment for clinical research.
SCONe co-founder, Professor Baljean Dhillon, of the University of Edinburgh, highlighted that the repository includes representation from 10 of the 14 health board areas within Scotland.
“The secured data, in conjunction with the latest advances in Artificial Intelligence for medical image analysis, are extremely valuable for developing new diagnostic tools and refining important time points in clinical care pathways where there is a need for monitoring, referral and intervention,” he said.
He added that data security has been a focus at every stage of the process, from collection through to analysis.
“Inside the National Safe Haven, multiple layers of protection are in place around the use of the images, including the removal of all directly identifiable information, creating a resource which can support a wide range of research in the public benefit while people’s privacy is protected,” Dhillon said.
At present, only approved members of the SCONe team have access to the data within the National Safe Haven.
Researchers are now working in conjunction with Public Health Scotland and Research Data Scotland to enable controlled, secure access for appropriately-qualified researchers to widen the public benefit of the resource.
The SCONe project has received funding from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Sight Scotland, Fight for Sight, NHS Lothian Charity, Chief Scientist Office and The RS Macdonald Charitable Trust.
Comments (0)
You must be logged in to join the discussion. Log in