Why Doctors Of the Future May Know Code

On any given day, radiologists at UC San Francisco (UCSF) and across the country view thousands of x-rays. These radiologists, with many years of experience in the medical and research world, have become adept at identifying which images require immediate follow-up or intervention. They can determine, for example, whether the lungs of a trauma patient are collapsed or if there is internal bleeding that requires immediate intervention. But with all of the talk about making healthcare more efficient, the ability of clinicians to read the images and know what they're seeing isn't what's holding back further progress. The challenge is that radiologists only have two eyes and so many hours in a day.