# Malarial Retinopathy Screening System for Improved Diagnosis of Cerebral Malaria

> **NIH NIH R44** · VISIONQUEST BIOMEDICAL INC · 2021 · $1,000,000

## Abstract

Summary
Cerebral malaria (CM) is a life-threatening clinical syndrome associated with malarial infection.
Annually, malaria affects more than 200 million people and claims the lives of over 440,000
people worldwide, mostly African children. As a consequence of the high incidence of CM, it is
often misdiagnosed for other pathologies with similar symptoms, leading to a high false
positive rate for CM and incorrect treatment. An accurate means to confirm the presence of CM
or to investigate for a non-malarial illness is critically needed to improve outcomes. Since
Malarial retinopathy (MR) is greater than 90% specific and sensitive to the presence of CM once
clinically diagnosed, retinal screening for MR represents an effective means to assist in and
improve the specificity of CM diagnosis.
VisionQuest Biomedical and its collaborators have assembled a team of inter-disciplinary
scientists with considerable experience in automated retinal image analysis, clinical
ophthalmology with specialized research in malarial retinopathy (MR), and cerebral malaria
diagnosis (CM). This team will develop and test ASPIRE, a system for detection of MR
consisting of automated MR detection software integrated with a low-cost and portable retinal
camera. Our proposed ASPIRE system will augment, not replace, the current CM diagnostic
standard; increasing the accuracy of CM diagnoses, leading to a smaller number of false
positive outcomes.
In Phases I and II, the research team at VisionQuest Biomedical developed the automated MR
detection software and interfaced it with a handheld retinal camera. The resulting clinical
prototype of ASPIRE was tested onsite in a health-clinic in Africa, which demonstrated excellent
performance and usability for detecting MR, without the need of an ophthalmic expert. In Phase
II-B, the MR detection system will be refined, productized, and the resulting commercial
prototype will be validated on prospective datasets. We will accomplish this through three
specific aims. In the first aim, the software system for MR detection will be adapted and
improved to work with low-cost and portable iNview camera. In the second aim, we will refine
iNview’s driver-software and integrate the camera with MR detection software to produce the
first commercial prototype. The third aim will focus on collecting the retinal image data for
algorithm testing as well as for validating the commercial prototype in an observational clinical
study to be conducted at nine clinical sites in Malawi, Uganda, and Zambia in Africa.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10074515
- **Project number:** 5R44AI112164-08
- **Recipient organization:** VISIONQUEST BIOMEDICAL INC
- **Principal Investigator:** Simon Harding
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $1,000,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2014-06-01 → 2023-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10074515

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10074515, Malarial Retinopathy Screening System for Improved Diagnosis of Cerebral Malaria (5R44AI112164-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10074515. Licensed CC0.

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