DIAGNOS names Dr. Ismail Ben Ayed Chief AI Scientist to advance retinal disease detection
DIAGNOS Inc. has appointed Dr. Ismail Ben Ayed as Chief Artificial Intelligence Scientist to accelerate the company's AI strategy for early detection of eye-related diseases. This move centers on strengthening the CARA (Computer-Assisted Retinal Analysis) System and expanding its clinical utility for real-world care.
For healthcare teams, this signals a clear push toward higher diagnostic accuracy, faster workflows, and broader access to AI-enabled screening-especially in primary care and ophthalmology settings where early detection changes outcomes.
Who is Dr. Ben Ayed
Dr. Ben Ayed is a full-time Professor in the Department of System Engineering at École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS) in Montreal and co-director of the LIVIA research center. Before joining ÉTS in 2015, he served as a research scientist at GE Healthcare and has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications in medical imaging, machine learning, and computer vision.
He will guide DIAGNOS' AI research and development, with a clear mandate to improve accuracy, efficiency, and clinical relevance across the CARA platform and future products.
What this means for clinicians and health systems
AI-driven retinal screening can reduce missed cases, shorten time-to-referral, and extend specialist reach. Expect stronger performance across diverse populations, clearer explainability for clinicians, and tighter integration with imaging devices and clinical systems.
- Higher sensitivity and specificity for key retinal conditions
- Workflow support that reduces screening friction in primary care and optometry
- Support for prospective validation and post-market monitoring to maintain performance in practice
- Interoperability with EHR/PACS and device-agnostic imaging whenever feasible
Focus areas for the new Chief AI Scientist
- Develop the next generation of visual AI tools that drive the CARA System and future DIAGNOS products
- Grow the in-house AI and scientific team to speed research-to-clinic translation
- Build academic and industry partnerships to validate and scale clinical AI solutions
Leadership at DIAGNOS emphasized that Dr. Ben Ayed's deep learning and medical imaging experience fits the company's mission to improve patient outcomes globally. For his part, Dr. Ben Ayed highlighted his commitment to developing generalizable, clinically validated models that can scale and strengthen preventative care.
Why this matters now
As AI tools move from pilots to routine care, the bar is rising on clinical validation, safety, and ongoing monitoring. Teams need models that perform across demographics, devices, and care settings-and that slot into existing clinical workflows without adding friction.
Regulators and clinical leaders are also pushing for sound evaluation practices. For context, see the FDA's perspective on Good Machine Learning Practice for medical devices: AI/ML-enabled medical devices.
About DIAGNOS and CARA
DIAGNOS is a publicly traded Canadian company focused on early detection of critical eye-related health problems using AI. The CARA System is built to give clinicians timely, decision-ready insights that support triage, referral, and follow-up.
Learn more at www.diagnos.com and on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com.
Forward-looking information
This announcement contains forward-looking information. Actual results and future events may differ materially from current expectations. DIAGNOS undertakes no obligation to update these statements except as required by law. The forward-looking information in this announcement is expressly qualified by this cautionary note.
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