Artificial Intelligence: Radiologists and Pathologists as Information Specialists

Artificial intelligence--the mimicking of human cognition by computers--was once a fable in science fiction but is becoming reality in medicine. The combination of big data and artificial intelligence, referred to by some as the fourth industrial revolution,1 will change radiology and pathology along with other medical specialties. Although reports of radiologists and pathologists being replaced by computers seem exaggerated,2 these specialties must plan strategically for a future in which artificial intelligence is part of the health care workforce. Radiologists have always revered machines and technology. In 1960, Lusted predicted "an electronic scanner-computer to examine chest photofluorograms, to separate the clearly normal chest films from the abnormal chest films."3