Radiologists and imaging leaders see an important role for machine learning in radiology going forward, however, most organizations are still two to three years away from adopting the technology, and a sizeable minority have no plans to adopt machine learning, according to a recent survey.
A recent study* by Reaction Data sought to examine the hype around artificial intelligence and machine learning, specifically in the area of radiology and imaging, to uncover where AI might be more useful and applicable and in what areas medical imaging professionals are looking to utilize machine learning.
Reaction Data, a market research firm, got feedback from imaging professionals, including directors of radiology, radiologists, chiefs of radiology, imaging techs, PACS administrators and managers of radiology, from 152 healthcare organizations to gauge the industry on machine learning. About 60 percent of respondents were from academic medical centers or community hospitals, while 15 percent were from integrated delivery networks and 12 percent were from imaging centers. The remaining respondents worked at critical access hospitals, specialty clinics, cancer hospitals or children’s hospitals.
Among the survey respondents, there was significant variation in the number of annual radiology studies performed—17 percent performed 100-250 thousand studies each year; 16 percent performed 1 to 2 million studies; 15 percent performed 5 to 25 thousand studies; 13 percent performed 250 to 500 thousand; 10 percent performed more than 2 million studies a year.
More than three quarters of imaging and radiology leaders (77 percent) view machine learning as being important in medical imaging, up from 65 percent in a 2017 survey. Only 11 percent view the technology as not important. However, only 59 percent say they understand machine learning, although that percentage is up from 52 percent in 2017. Twenty percent say they don’t understand the technology, and 20 percent have a partial understanding.
Looking at adoption, only 22 percent of respondents say they are currently using machine learning—either just adopted it or have been using it for some time. Eleven percent say they plan to adopt the technology in the next year.
Half of respondents (51 percent) say their organizations are one to two years away (28 percent) or even more than three years away (23 percent) from adoption. Sixteen percent say their organizations will most likely never utilize machine learning.
Reaction Data collected commentary from survey respondents as part of the survey and some respondents indicated that funding was an issue with regard to the lack of plans to adopt the technology. When asked why they don’t ever plan to utilize machine learning, one respondent, a chief of cardiology, said, “Our institution is a late adopter.” Another respondent, an imaging tech, responded: “No talk of machine learning in my facility. To be honest, I had to Google the definition a moment ago.”
Survey responses also indicated that imaging leaders want machine learning tools to be integrated into PACS (picture archiving and communication systems) software, and that cost is an issue.
“We'd like it to be integrated into PACS software so it's free, but we understand there is a cost for everything. We wouldn't want to pay more than $1 per study,” one PACS Administrator responded, according to the survey.
A radiologist who responded to the survey said, “The market has not matured yet since we are in the research phase of development and cost is unknown. I expect the initial cost to be on the high side.”
According to the survey, when asked how much they would be willing to pay for machine learning, one imaging director responded: “As little as possible...but I'm on the hospital administration side. Most radiologists are contracted and want us to buy all the toys. They take about 60 percent of the patient revenue and invest nothing into the hospital/ambulatory systems side.”
And, one director of radiology responded: “Included in PACS contract would be best... very hard to get money for this.”
The survey also indicates that, among organizations that are using machine learning in imaging, there is a shift in how organizations are applying machine learning in imaging. In the 2017 survey, the most common application for machine learning was breast imaging, cited by 36 percent of respondents, and only 12 percent cited lung imaging.
In the 2018 survey, only 22 percent of respondents said they were using machine learning for breast imaging, while there was an increase in other applications. The next most-used application cited by respondents who have adopted and use machine learning was lung imaging (22 percent), cardiovascular imaging (13 percent), chest X-rays (11 percent), bone imaging (7 percent), liver imaging (7 percent), neural imaging (5 percent) and pulmonary imaging (4 percent).
When asked what kind of scans they plan to apply machine learning to once the technology is adopted, one radiologist cited quality control for radiography, CT (computed tomography) and MR (magnetic resonance) imaging.
The survey also examines the vendors being used, among respondents who have adopted machine learning, and the survey findings indicate some differences compared to the 2017 survey results. No one vendor dominates this space, as 19 percent use GE Healthcare and about 16 percent use Hologic, which is down compared to 25 percent of respondents who cited Hologic as their vendor in last year’s survey.
Looking at other vendors being used, 14 percent use Philips, 7 percent use Arterys, 3 percent use Nvidia and Zebra Medical Vision and iCAD were both cited by 5 percent of medical imaging professionals. The percentage of imaging leaders citing Google as their machine learning vendor dropped from 13 percent in 2017 to 3 percent in this latest survey. Interestingly, the number of respondents reporting the use of homegrown machine learning solutions increased to 14 percent from 9 percent in 2017.
*Findings were compiled from Reaction Data’s Research Cloud. For additional information, please contact Erik Westerlind at [email protected].
