HUNTINGTON Ƶ Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used in Marshall Health Network hospitals to read mammograms. ItƵs .
Dr. Ben Moosavi, the medical director of St. MaryƵs Breast Center, said he is excited about the capabilities itƵs bringing to medicine.
ƵAI is a fantastic addition to using computers in AI-generated protocols to enhance our screening and help our radiologists and our team in multiple ways,Ƶ Moosavi said. ƵOne, it makes our detection of cancer more accurate. Two, it reduces false positives. Three, itƵs more efficient and cost effective. Four, it increases access to screening in underserved areas. And five, it supports clinical decisions.Ƶ
St. MaryƵs currently has two mammography machines from Hologic Dimensions Genius AI, both equipped with AI technology. The first machine was received by the medical center in January 2021 and a second was added in September.
St. MaryƵs schedules about 40 mammograms per day in total, 20 on each machine. Patients who got a mammogram at St. MaryƵs Medical Center in the past few years may not have known AI was being used to read their mammograms.
ƵTraditionally, the image would be captured and then the radiologist would read it. Now, the image is captured, the radiologist uses AI to help interpret the image and there are certain things that AI picks up that maybe the radiologist wouldnƵt. So the combination of the radiologist and AI means weƵre detecting up to 20% more cancers with a combination rather than the radiologist alone,Ƶ Moosavi said. ƵSo it doesnƵt change anything with the patient experience.Ƶ
All patient images are added to an archiving system. There is no extra cost incurred by patients who are screened on the machines.
Cabell Huntington Hospital will be receiving two AI-equipped machines, as well. The Hologic-Dimensions Genius AI mammography machines will go into use once Cabell Huntington relocates its Breast Center to the hospitalƵs new Medical Outpatient Pavilion later this year.
ƵWeƵre at the cutting edge of technology in detecting breast cancers as early as possible,Ƶ Moosavi said. ƵThe more accurate we are in detecting breast cancers and the earlier we can find breast cancers, the better patients will do long term with their treatments for breast cancer.Ƶ
The software reading the mammograms can even give a percentage of how likely a lesion is to be a risk, he explained, allowing doctors to find them earlier and be more accurate and quick with their diagnoses of cancer.
Moosavi says it will ƵneverƵ come to a point where AI completely replaces radiologists in reading mammograms.
ƵA computer, it can interpret an image, but it canƵt interpret whatƵs going on in that image. So, in other words, you could have a spot that looks high risk but is an old scar ... the computer canƵt tell the difference,Ƶ he said.
Scars can develop in different ways, such as from lactation or a mastitis infection. It takes a human radiologist to account for that vital context when reading a mammogram.
ƵSo itƵll never replace a radiologist, It just helps a radiologist,Ƶ he said.
The machinesƵ software continuously adds images to its database so it can improve detection, but Moosavi says that no matter how good it gets at reading images, itƵs just identifying different colored pixels.
ƵAll AI is like that, the more you feed it, the more it grows,Ƶ he explained. ƵBut when you look at what the technology of a mammogram is, itƵs a static image thatƵs gained, it canƵt feed enough information once it gets to a certain point other than this is a white pixel and this is a black pixel and a gray pixel.Ƶ
Teresa Clark, 73, is a breast cancer survivor who has been cancer-free for 10 years. She was getting a mammogram at St. MaryƵs Breast Center in September.
ƵWe (Huntington) used to really be behind because you couldnƵt get an MRI here Ƶ not for a long time,Ƶ Clark said.
She said itƵs a good thing medical technology is improving in Huntington. The doctors here Ƶknow what they are doingƵ and they listen, she added.
While AI reading mammograms is a good thing, Clark said she doesnƵt necessarily feel safer living in a world with AI, and she has concerns with some of the ways it can be used, such as to generate fake images.
ƵAI is not good for everything. ItƵs doing something good here because itƵs focused on this,Ƶ she said.
