First Autonomous AI Medical Imaging Application Reads Chest X-Rays without Radiologist Involvement

By MedImaging International staff writers
Posted on 01 Apr 2022

Image: ChestLink is the first fully autonomous AI medical imaging product (Photo courtesy of Unsplash)

AI autonomy in medical imaging is not driven by the technology, but by the current systematic healthcare shortcomings the platforms aim to address, namely the understaffed radiology departments in developed countries. Now, an AI imaging application that autonomously reports on chest X-rays featuring no abnormalities without any involvement from a radiologist could reduce radiologist workload and enable them to focus on cases with pathologies.

Oxipit’s (Vilnius, Lithuania) ChestLink autonomous AI imaging suite is the first fully autonomous AI medical imaging product with a CE mark. ChestLink identifies CXRs with no abnormality and produces finalized patient reports without any intervention from the radiologist. By autonomously reporting on CXRs with no abnormalities where it is highly certain of the results, ChestLink may automate from 15% to 40% of daily reporting, freeing up radiologists to report on cases that feature pathologies.

Prior to certification, ChestLink has been operating in a supervised reporting setting in multiple pilot locations for more than a year, processing more than 500,000 real-world chest X-ray images. For operational oversight ChestLink application provides an analytics page with real-time updates and daily summaries on what cases were autonomously reported on, allowing to quickly trace the steps of application decisions. Prior to autonomous operations, ChestLink deployments start with a retrospective imaging audit. Retrospective analysis helps to identify what part of studies at the medical institution can be successfully automated. The operations then move into a supervised setting, where ChestLink reports are validated by the Oxipit medical staff and radiologists at the medical institution. Only after completing the initial stages, the application can start to report autonomously.

“ChestLink ushers in the era of AI autonomy in healthcare - something we have been promised by medical futurists and technology experts. It presents the first case where a medical diagnostic evaluation will be carried out solely by an artificial intelligence application. ChestLink showcases the future of healthcare diagnostics, where AI operates as an integral part of the clinical workflow,” said CEO of Oxipit Gediminas Peksys.

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