AI shows potential in low-resource settings

The need for diagnostic images is rapidly exceeding the capacity of available specialists worldwide, and more acutely so in developing countries where access to healthcare remains challenging. AI is showing promise in TB diagnosis, but it could do much more, provided incentives went in the right direction, recent initiatives in Uganda have shown. Shortage of radiologists is a worldwide phenomenon, but the lack of specialists is much more pronounced in developing countries. In Uganda, only 20 doctors signed up for radiology residency in 2018 and the radiologist-to-population ratio was approximately 1:1,600,000; and it was even lower in Malawi – 1:8,000,000. With AI, possibilities are emerging to fill in this vertiginous gap and tend to these populations' medical imaging needs.