Bram van Ginneken, PhD
Professor of Medical Image Analysis
Chair of the Diagnostic Image Analysis Group
Radboud University Medical Center
Title: Why AI Should Replace Radiologists
Abstract:
In this talk, I will provide arguments for the thesis that nearly all diagnostic radiology could be performed by computers and that the notion that AI will not replace radiologists is only temporarily true. Some well-known and lesser-known examples of AI systems analyzing medical images with a stand-alone performance on par or beyond human experts will be presented. I will show that systems built by academia, in collaborative efforts, may even outperform commercially available systems. Next, I will sketch a way forward to implement automated diagnostic radiology and argue that this is needed to keep healthcare affordable in societies wrestling with aging populations. Some pitfalls, like excessive demands for trials, will be discussed. The key to success is to convince radiologists to take the lead in this process. They need to collaborate with AI developers, but AI developers and the medical device industry should not lead this process. Radiologists should, in fact, stop training radiologists, and instead, start training machines.