AI Aids Cancer Detection and Relieves Radiologist Workloads

By teaming AI with experienced radiologists, researchers were able to achieve promising results.

One study of over 80,000 breast cancer screening mammograms found that having AI assist one radiologist led to similar cancer detection rates as the standard practice of two radiologists reviewing scans alone. Even more impactful was the dramatic 44-50% reduction in workload experienced by the AI-supported radiologist compared to their colleagues who review scans solo. A second corroborating study of 56,000 mammograms found that cancer identification improved by 4% when AI was added to aid interpretation.

What makes AI so well-suited to this task? As the studies' authors note, detecting abnormalities on medical imaging falls squarely within AI's strong suit of pattern recognition analysis. Mammograms can produce over 5GB of image data per patient, more visual information than any person could be expected to analyze exhaustively. AI systems could scour the entirety of these datasets, flagging anything unusual across millions of pixels.

If these workload reductions scale to broader applications, their impacts could be immense. Radiologist shortages were already straining healthcare systems, and growing cancer screening volumes threaten to further exacerbate the problem. However, if AI allows each radiologist to double the number of exams reviewed, scarce specialist time could be expanded to meet rising demand. This could make lifesaving screening more accessible to more patients.

Naturally, more research is still needed before AI achieves mainstream screening use. But initial evidence indicates that AI assessment works best as a supportive second reader to an expert radiologist, not as a replacement. By quickly sorting cases as either concerning or routine, AI could help specialists focus only on patients truly in need of closer human review. Through teamwork like this, the combination of AI and radiologist may just prove stronger than either is alone.

Sources:

https://worth.com/ai-speeds-up-cancer-detection/