Radiologists aren’t going anywhere

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Nine years ago, AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton sent shockwaves through medicine by declaring it “just completely obvious” that AI would make radiologists extinct in short order. Fast forward and the specialists — who do more than analyze images — are thriving, observes The New York Times. In fact, the field is experiencing explosive growth amid a looming workforce crisis. (According to projections from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the U.S. faces a staggering shortage of up to 42,000 radiologists and other physician specialists by 2033.)

Rather than stealing jobs, notes the piece, AI has become radiologists’ secret weapon, allowing them to instantly measure organs, automatically flag abnormalities, and even detect diseases years before conventional methods. At Mayo Clinic, where radiologist numbers have skyrocketed by 55% since Hinton’s prediction, the radiology department has grown to include a 40-person team of AI scientists, researchers, analysts and engineers who have licensed and have also developed more than 250 AI models, ranging from tissue analyzers to disease predictors.

“Five years from now, it will be malpractice not to use AI,” says John Halamka, president of the Mayo Clinic Platform, who oversees the health system’s digital initiatives, in the article.