Bridging the knowledge gap on AI and machine-learning technologies – Physics World

How much is too much? These are questions that cut to the heart of a complex issue currently preoccupying senior medical physicists when it comes to the training and continuing professional development (CPD) of the radiotherapy physics workforce. What's exercising management and educators specifically is the extent to which the core expertise and domain knowledge of radiotherapy physicists should evolve to reflect – and, in so doing, best support – the relentless progress of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning technologies within the radiation oncology workflow. In an effort to bring a degree of clarity and consensus to the collective conversation, the ESTRO 2022 Annual Congress in Copenhagen last month featured a dedicated workshop session entitled "Every radiotherapy physicist should know about AI/machine learning…but how much?" With several hundred delegates packed into Room D5 at the Bella Center, speakers were tasked by the session moderators with defending a range of "optimum scenarios" to align the know-how of medical physicists versus emerging AI/machine-learning opportunities in the radiotherapy clinic.