Every echocardiogram is a moving story. For a baby born with a complex heart condition, the gray and black images on the ultrasound screen can influence some of the earliest and most important decisions a medical team makes: What exactly is wrong with the heart? How urgent is surgery? What should doctors watch for after repair?

In our recent work, we focused on tetralogy of Fallot, often shortened to TOF. It is one of the most common cyanotic congenital heart defects. The condition involves several structural abnormalities of the heart, and many children with TOF need careful evaluation, surgery and long-term follow-up. The research is published in the journal eBioMedicine.

Echocardiography is central to that process. It is widely used, noninvasive and rich in clinical information. But it is also demanding. Clinicians must identify the correct views, interpret moving images, measure small cardiac structures, and combine these pieces of information with the patient’s clinical course. Even experienced clinicians can face heavy workloads, and interpretation can vary between observers.

A new collaborative study by Tel Aviv University and Sheba Medical Center marks a significant advance toward noninvasive blood testing, one of the most significant unmet needs in the market. The researchers have developed an artificial intelligence–based system capable of assessing hemoglobin levels and red blood cell counts using a short video recording of the blood vessels in the eye’s conjunctiva, the transparent membrane covering the white part of the eye, without the need for a needle prick or blood draw.

The study was conducted by Tamir Denis, a master’s graduate of Tel Aviv University, in collaboration with the research groups of Prof. Haim Suchowski of the School of Physics and Astronomy and Prof. Lior Wolf of the Blavatnik School of Computer Science and AI, together with researchers from Sheba Medical Center: Prof. Ygal Rotenstreich, head of the Electrophysiology Clinic and Retinal Research Laboratory, and Dr. Ifat Sher-Rosenthal, research director and head of the Restorative Retinal Lab. The findings are published in the journal npj Digital Medicine.

Blood tests are among the most commonly performed medical procedures worldwide, yet they still rely on invasive blood sampling and complex laboratory processing. Previous attempts focused on anatomical sites failed to demonstrate significant correlation.