New Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging Released

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) recently released a new report that provides a roadmap for translational research on artificial intelligence (AI) in medical imaging. The report was published in the May 28 edition of the Journal of the American College of Radiology, and is the second in a series that details the results of a workshop held last year in conjunction with the Radiologic American College of Radiology (ACR), Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), and the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research (The Academy).

The first report in the series, released earlier this year, provided a roadmap for the advancement of foundational research in AI. This second report is more concerned with how to bolster the translational research necessary to deliver AI to clinical practice. One of the primary goals of this new report is to foster a symbiotic relationship between industry, government, and professional societies that will encourage cross-collaboration and further the development of both foundational and translational research.

The report notes four key priorities to achieve this goal:

• Structured AI use cases. In software development, use cases define who will use a system and for what specific goal. AI use cases should define and highlight clinical challenges potentially solvable by AI.
• Data sharing. Researchers should establish methods to encourage data sharing for training and testing AI algorithms to promote generalizability to widespread clinical practice and minimize unintended bias.
• Tools for validation and performance monitoring of AI algorithms to facilitate regulatory approval.
• Standards and common data elements for seamless integration of AI tools into existing clinical workflows.

“Radiology has transformed the practice of medicine in the past century, and AI has the potential to radically impact radiology in positive ways,” said Krishna Kandarpa, M.D., Ph.D., co-author of the report and director of research sciences and strategic directions at NIBIB. “This roadmap is a timely survey and analysis by experts at federal agencies and among our industry and professional societies that will help us take the best advantage of AI technologies as they impact the medical imaging field.”

To view the report in full, click here: https://www.jacr.org/article/S1546-1440(19)30458-2/fulltext