Abstract: A method of detecting, and classifying severity of, a retinal disease using retinal images includes at least one of receiving, retrieving or generating reference data that includes information concerning occurrences of key image features for each of a plurality of retinal disease and disease severity conditions; receiving a retinal image of an individual; processing the retinal image of the individual to identify occurrences of each of a plurality of distinguishable image features throughout at least a region of interest of the retinal image; identifying which ones of the identified occurrences of the plurality of distinguishable image features of the retinal image of the individual correspond to the key image features of the reference data; calculating, based on the identifying, a number of occurrences of each of the key image features in the retinal image of the individual; and determining at least one of a likelihood of a presence of a retinal disease or a likelihood of developing a retinal disease based o