Biography

Michael D. Abramoff, MD, PhD, is a computer engineer, fellowship-trained retina specialist, and entrepreneur. A Fellow of IEEE, he is the Robert C. Watzke, Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Iowa, with a joint appointment in the College of Engineering. Dr. Abramoff is also Founder and Executive Chairman of Digital Diagnostics Inc, that was the first in any field of medicine to get FDA clearance for an autonomous AI, as well as sustainable nationwide reimbursement, where the AI makes a medical decision without human oversight. In primary care, it instantaneously diagnoses diabetic retinopathy and macular edema at the point of care. He developed an ethical foundation for medical AI instrumental to the design, validation, and regulatory and reimbursement pathways for autonomous AI, and the randomized controlled trials and other studies that showed autonomous AI increases clinician productivity and satisfaction, health equity, patient outcomes and access, and lowers cost. He is founder and executive secretary of the Healthcare AI coalition, representing pure medical AI companies in Washington DC, and founding member of two of FDA’s Collaborative Community. The author of over 400 peer-reviewed publications in this field, his work has been cited over 50,000 times (h-index 82), and is inventor on 25 issued patents and many patent applications. Dr. Abramoff has mentored dozens of graduate engineering students, ophthalmology residents, and retina fellows.