Protecting Vision to Advance Maternal, Newborn and Child Health: AI-Enabled Screening for Premature Infants in Mongolia

By Kathleen Sherwin, President & CEO, Orbis International and PMNCH Board Member

Healthy vision is fundamental to child survival, development, and lifelong well-being. In the earliest years of life, vision supports brain development, learning, movement, and social interaction. When vision is lost in infancy, the consequences can affect health, development and future opportunity across the life course, yet many cases are preventable through timely newborn care and early intervention.

As neonatal survival improves globally, health systems face a new challenge: ensuring premature infants not only survive but thrive. Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) - the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness worldwide is increasingly important within maternal; newborn and child health (MNCH) programs as more preterm babies survive and require specialized follow-up care.

In Mongolia, Orbis International and Siloam Vision are supporting this next phase of newborn care through an AI-assisted ROP screening initiative at the National Center for Maternal and Child Health (NCMCH) neonatal intensive care unit in Ulaanbaatar. The program integrates assistive artificial intelligence into routine neonatal services, representing the first use of this approach in a low- and middle-income country for ROP screening. The technology used is the first AI system for ROP to receive Breakthrough Device designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 

The initiative combines mobile retinal imaging, telemedicine and workforce capacity strengthening to support earlier diagnosis and referral. Doctors from remote provinces have been trained to use smartphone-based retinal imaging systems, with images reviewed through telemedicine networks linked to NCMCH. AI supports, rather than replaces clinical decision-making by helping ophthalmologists identify high-risk cases more quickly and reliably. 

This approach is particularly relevant in Mongolia, where large geographic distances and dispersed populations can create barriers to specialist care. By integrating AI and telemedicine into maternal and newborn services, the initiative aims to extend equitable access to specialized care for vulnerable infants across the country. 

Among the first babies screened were premature twins born at NCMCH. Their mother, Otgonchimeg, understood firsthand the risks of ROP and the importance of timely screening. With AI-enabled review, results that previously could take days can now be supported within seconds, reducing delays and enabling faster follow-up when needed. 

Since launch, Orbis-trained eye health professionals in Mongolia have conducted more than 270 examinations for over 170 newborns, demonstrating how innovation, workforce strengthening and integrated newborn services can help prevent avoidable disability while supporting healthier developmental outcomes for children. 

Mongolia’s experience highlights an important lesson for the maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health community: as survival improves, investments must also focus on quality, disability prevention and developmental outcomes so that every child has the opportunity not only to survive, but to thrive.