Aspiring radiologists should consider specializing in interventional radiology over diagnostic radiology as artificial intelligence (AI) could possibly take on the task of interpreting medical images, according to the co-founder of Singapore-based Parkway Cancer Centre (PCC) on Friday.
“If anyone wants to do radiology, you should not do diagnostic radiology. You must be an interventional radiologist,” Dr. Ang Peng Tiam, medical director and senior consultant of PCC, said during a media launch.
“(This means) that you must be the person who does the angiogram, to block off the vessels, the one who does the biopsy, and not the one who just reads the X-rays.”
“Because that reading in the future will all be done by computer and AI. So this is a whole learning process,” he also said.
Mr. Ang’s statement stems from the center’s experience with a lung cancer patient, where a radiologist initially identified only three nodules in the lungs, but subsequent AI-assisted analysis revealed a total of 20 nodules.
This discrepancy created a clinical dilemma, forcing doctors to weigh whether they should still recommend surgery based on the traditional human reading of three nodules — which academic literature suggests could offer a 25% chance of a cure — or reconsider treatment because the AI detected 20 nodules, he said.
Because historical medical research has been based entirely on human visual recognition rather than computer counts, physicians face a complex learning curve in determining how to interpret and act on these machine-detected findings.
“So that’s why when you look at the whole field of medicine, there are two areas which have changed and will be changed in a very big way: one is diagnostic radiology, and two is pathology,” Mr. Ang said.
Although AI in medicine is emerging, he said the technology can never replace humans, as healthcare also entails “the element of trust, care, and hope,” which he noted that only humans can provide.
Mr. Ang’s statement comes as the AI in healthcare market is projected to be valued at $28.2 billion in 2026 and grow to $146.3 billion by 2031, representing an annual growth rate of 39%, according to Wissen Research, a global consulting firm. — Edg Adrian A. Eva