Re:Ask HN: What is the most exciting development in your fie...
by elihu on Sunday February 05, 2017 @10:14PM
(#13576242)
I suppose full automation may be a long way off, but maybe in the mean time we can do both? Have the radiologist evaluate the images, and then look at the report the AI generated and see if they agree. Use the radiologist to help train the AI, and use the AI to double-check the radiologist.
Maybe if MRI scans get cheap enough (due to advances in cheap superconductors or whatever) that it's economically feasible to scan people regularly as a precautionary measure (rather than in response to some symptom), then the bulk of the cost might then be in having the radiologist look at the scans. In those "there's nothing wrong but lets check anyways" cases, it might be better to just have the AI do it all even if its accuracy is lower, if it represents a better health-care-dollar-spent to probability-of-detecting-a-serious-problem ratio. (If the alternative is to just not do the scan because the radiologist's fees are too expensive, then it's better to have the cheap scan than nothing at all.)
Maybe if MRI scans get cheap enough (due to advances in cheap superconductors or whatever) that it's economically feasible to scan people regularly as a precautionary measure (rather than in response to some symptom), then the bulk of the cost might then be in having the radiologist look at the scans. In those "there's nothing wrong but lets check anyways" cases, it might be better to just have the AI do it all even if its accuracy is lower, if it represents a better health-care-dollar-spent to probability-of-detecting-a-serious-problem ratio. (If the alternative is to just not do the scan because the radiologist's fees are too expensive, then it's better to have the cheap scan than nothing at all.)