The Business and Economic Case for "AI" in Radiology: A Radiologist's Perspective

AI is the current technological gift that will certainly change what radiologists do-but how, exactly? There are major differences between this new technology and previous technological advances. CT, MRI, US, PET-all generated fundamentally new types of images, more images, better images. They enabled medical imagers to see extraordinarily important clinical findings that had never been seen. The added clinical value of these new technologies quickly became standard of care, with appropriate reimbursement mechanisms, primarily new fee-for-service Clinical Practice Terminology codes. These technologies also provided more work for radiology departments-quickly becoming the bulk of our core diagnostic work. In contrast, what we call AI today does not generate fundamentally new types of images that add intrinsically novel or clinically critical information, though they may add operational efficiency. Based on this opinion, I do not believe that there will be additional reimbursable Clinical Practice Terminology codes to fund today's AI. Their administrative and operational advantages are welcome and needed, but they will have to be paid for by greater operational efficiencies.