Training radiologists with AI seen as key to radiology tech leadership

PARCA eNews – Nov. 6, 2020 – A new pathway for radiologists in training has been developed at Brigham & Women’s Hospital that pairs fourth-year radiology students with AI developers to both improve AI and to integrate radiology residents with an AI future in radiology practice.

Recognizing that artificial intelligence and machine learning is here to stay, Brigham and Women’s designed a curricula that combines AI and radiology.
“Across the nation, there are a number of radiology residency programs that are trying to figure out how to integrate AI into their training,” Walter F. Wiggins, M.D., Ph.D, administrator for the B&W training program told Diagnostic Imaging “We thought that perhaps our experience would help other programs figure out ways to integrate this type of training into either their elective pathways or their more general residency curriculum.”

The program/pathway development involved three residents who contributed to designing the curricula, proposing three-, six- and eight-month programs that combine formal instructions and practical problem-solving collaborations with data scientists. The program exposes residents to all aspects of AI and ML application development, quality control and clinical testing.

The curricula encourages collaboration between residents and data scientists that produces better understanding of how each profession approaches image analysis, and teaches each the languages of both disciplines.

Ultimately, Wiggins said, by training its residents, radiology can continue to lead the way in integrating AI into more widespread clinical use.


Source: Diagnostic Imaging, "To remain a technology leader, radiology must train residents in machine learning"