UW faculty share with media the benefits of AI tools in breast imaging
UW Department of Radiology faculty are incorporating artificial intelligence tools into their work detecting breast cancer, and local media is highlighting the new technology.
As site co-principal investigators on the national PRISM Trial (Pragmatic Randomized Trial of Artificial Intelligence for Screening Mammography), Mai Elezaby, MD and Ryan Woods, MD, MPH are assessing how AI screening technology can be used to help analyze mammograms.
For the Wisconsin State Journal’s “New tool in the doctor’s office: The AI assistant,” Dr. Elezaby explained that the screening tool acts “almost as a second set of eyes, looking at the mammograms and giving me its assessment, and as a physician … I assess whether I think this is important and valid information or not, and I incorporate that in my interpretation and decision.”
Similarly, Dr. Woods told Spectrum News 1 TV segment and article that AI can help “identify findings that are maybe not even really perceptible to the human eye.” He emphasized that AI is a tool that supports radiologists.
“Some people also describe it kind of like a copilot,” said Woods. “That the radiologist is still in the driver’s seat. We’re still making all the final decisions. We’re doing all the same work that we normally do, but we have someone, something, someone next to us saying, yeah, to make sure you look at this area or increasing our confidence by saying, no findings here.”