the small vessels in the retina do show signs of cardiovascular disease earlier than many of the bigger vessels. Optometrists and ophthalmologists are trained to look for “copper wiring” and “silver wiring” and tortuousity, and a lot of medical centers will do “tele-ophthalmology” for screening retinal exams for diabetic patients where a tech will take a picture of the back of your eye and an ophthalmologist will review it later.

The advantage of this software is presumably that the algorithm will be able to pick up subtle signs and translate it into a predictive model for heart disease, and to do it more quickly/practically than having an ophthalmologist review every image.