🔬Could AI Steal Pathology and Radiology Jobs?

Today, I’m writing this from my apartment in New York City, and it’s a beautiful sunny day. Finally. This is the first week, this year, that New York is supposed to be over 60 degrees. Every. Single. Day. Let’s begin.

Fierce Healthcare: As artificial intelligence and machine learning are adopted across the industry, radiologists and pathologists are blasting the same alarm as countless others by asking whether AI-powered diagnostics are here for their jobs.

Spooky Tech

At this point, AI has most white-collar professionals looking over their shoulders. Waiting. Wondering, “Is this AI thing going to make me…obsolete?” That question is living rent-free in the minds of pathologists and radiologists.

AI tools like Tempus, Paige, Ibex, and PreciseDX have sprung up from the ground; itching to help. PresciseDX even got approved by the state of New York for AI-enabled breast cancer diagnosis. Woah.

Good or Bad

Well, right now, it is hard to know if these companies will take the jobs of radiologists and pathologists. This study brings interesting data to light.

In it, researchers surveyed over 1,000 medical students to see if emerging technologies (ET) influenced their choice of residency. They found that from 2017 to 2021, students have become increasingly more deterred from choosing radiology due to a perceived decrease in available jobs.

Basically, students think, in the future, new technology will eat up jobs in radiology. And, just like that, AI taking radiology jobs could be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Human-centric

Some researchers believe that AI will simply help medical professionals make more informed decisions. One researcher told Fierce Healthcare, “To have an algorithm make a final diagnosis, you need regulation to support that. And who is responsible if that diagnosis is wrong? So that's a lot of hoops to go over until we reach the point where we completely trust a computer to make a prediction between life and death.”

Jobs aside, these tools are trying to save lives and advance the medical field. A noble mission.