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Keeping Pace with Volume, SIIM 2025 Opens, and FDA Slowdown?
May 22, 2025
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Together with
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“Our challenge for the next 5 years is to figure out how to provide double the imaging capacity while halving the time necessary for interpretation.”
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Greg Zaharchuk, MD, Stanford University, speaking at ASNR 2025.
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This week weary neuroradiologists descended upon the City of Brotherly Love for the annual meeting of the American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR). The field is facing mounting pressure as increasing imaging volumes continue to outstrip radiologists’ capacity.
Dealing with growing volume was a recurring theme throughout ASNR 2025, with a range of proposed solutions, including the seven strategies below:
- Acquisition automation for higher efficiency and reduced technical requirement: A talk by Lawrence Tanenbaum, MD, featured a number of AI solutions to ease technologist training requirements, including smart protocoling, automated patient positioning, one-touch exams without parameter adjustments, and on-device quality assurance and motion correction to cut down repeat exams.
- Accelerated acquisitions as the standard-of-care: Every manufacturer – from established vendors to emerging startups – showcased deep learning-based reconstruction. As Suzie Bash, MD, put it, “Deep learning reconstruction is becoming standard-of-care across the industry.”
- Improving radiologist reading efficiency with AI and workflow management: A noticeable trend at ASNR 2025 was fewer talks focused solely on algorithm accuracy and more emphasis on how AI impacts reading efficiency. Accuracy remains critical, but adoption increasingly hinges on demonstrating workflow efficiency.
- Streamlining new algorithm rollout using integrated platforms: In a session on AI adoption and evaluation, Reza Forghani, MD, PhD, called for increased use of integrated platforms to allow for easier algorithm deployment, validation, and monitoring.
- Rising reliance on international medical graduates (IMGs): Mina Hesami, MD, presented on the rising contribution of IMGs to US radiology, noting a steady increase in the proportion of residency slots, fellowships, and leadership roles held by international graduates – with radiology seeing faster growth than most other medical specialties.
- Expanding the radiology workforce with mid-level providers: Another proposed strategy is offloading specific tasks to mid-level providers. While still controversial in radiology, this model is gaining traction in response to workforce shortages.
- Sustainability by reducing emissions and environmental impact: Several ASNR sessions addressed environmental sustainability. From simply turning off idle scanners to using AI to reduce contrast doses, radiologists are beginning to reckon with the environmental impact of rising scan volumes.
The Takeaway
The sessions at ASNR 2025 indicate that while there’s a lot of buzz around AI, radiologists are considering every tool at their disposal to keep up with rising imaging volumes. AI will play a role, but likely won’t be sufficient alone to keep up with increasing volumes.
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Coming Soon – A New Era in Fluoroscopy
Siemens Healthineers has created something so groundbreaking, it may transform your fluoroscopy imaging: LUMINOS Q.namix is coming soon. Learn more on this page.
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Partnership for AI-Automated Echo Analysis
Us2.ai partnered with Fujifilm Healthcare Americas to equip Fujifilm’s Lisendo 800 cardiovascular ultrasound scanner with Us2.ai’s AI-driven automated clinical workflow solution. Learn more on this page.
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AI-Powered Early Breast Cancer Detection
DeepHealth parent RadNet is expanding its presence in mammography AI with its pending acquisition of iCAD. Find out how the transaction will accelerate AI-powered early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer on this page.
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- SIIM 2025 Opens with AI Focus: Another meeting going on this week is the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine meeting in Portland, and the conference opened with a keynote address by Rohini Kosoglu on the future of healthcare with a particular focus on AI regulation. Kosoglu reviewed recent milestones in AI regulation and how they have been shaped by political developments, and advised SIIM attendees to get involved early to shape regulatory efforts that may unfold in the future. SIIM 2025 continues through Friday.
- CDC Warns of Contaminated Ultrasound Gel: The CDC is investigating reports that patients may have been exposed to bacteria from the use of non-sterile ultrasound gel from ultrasound-guided percutaneous procedures. The agency reports that “multiple prior outbreaks” with Paraburkholderia fungorum occurred starting in September 2024 based on patient blood cultures and were linked to two non-sterile ultrasound gels made by NEXT Medical Products, MediChoice and ClearImage. The CDC advised that only single-use sterile ultrasound gels be used for percutaneous procedures.
- Breast MRI and CEM Excel in BRAID: Interim findings from the U.K. BRAID trial of supplemental imaging for women with dense breasts show the value of contrast-enhanced mammography and abbreviated breast MRI. In 6.3k women with dense breasts and negative mammograms, there was no statistically significant difference in the cancer detection rate per 1k women between AB-MRI and CEM (17 and 19 respectively), and both were much higher than automated breast ultrasound (4.2).
- More Findings on Abbreviated Breast MRI: Another positive study on abbreviated breast MRI was published this week Radiology. Dutch researchers evaluating data from the DENSE trial found that for 2.1k exams of women with extremely dense breast tissue a 10-minute AB-MRI protocol had comparable sensitivity and specificity as a full 30-minute exam, with 50% shorter reading times. A study of ultrafast breast MRI earlier this month found it lagged a full dynamic contrast-enhanced protocol.
- U.K. Study Validates Breast Screening AI: As the U.K. eyes AI deployment across the NHS, the ARIES study in BMJ Health & Care Informatics offers support for breast screening. Across 307k screening mammograms, researchers compared radiologists using DeepHealth’s Mia AI to double-reading, finding that AI-assisted screening produced workflow savings of 38-44% while flagging 41% of interval cancers. Cancer detection rate per 1k cases declined slightly (-0.24 to -0.08) due to ARIES’ study design of focusing on efficiency improvement rather than cancer detection.
- Kailo Buys Generative AI Firm: Kailo Medical acquired REI AI, an Australian developer of generative AI algorithms, with the goal of integrating REI’s technology into its reporting solutions. REI AI was founded by Dr. Reuben Schmidt, an Australian radiologist, who joins Kailo as director of clinical AI. REI’s offerings include natural dictation that converts traditional voice dictation into structured reports, as well as real-time report error detection, automated impressions generation.
- Sybil AI Predicts Lung Cancer Risk: In a presentation from the 2025 American Thoracic Society meeting, researchers presented new data investigating the Sybil AI algorithm’s ability to predict lung cancer from a single low-dose CT scan. Using data from 21.1k people who got LDCT scans in South Korea, Sybil did well in predicting one-year risk of lung cancer (AUC=0.86) as well as at six years (AUC=0.74), and was slightly better for low-risk people. The findings track with previous research on Sybil’s predictive power.
- CAC-Based Calculator Predicts Heart Risk: Adding coronary artery calcium scores to the American Heart Association’s PREVENT clinical risk score better predicted future heart attack risk. In a study of 7k patients, researchers found that CCTA-derived CAC scores correlated well with PREVENT scores over an average follow-up period of 1.2 years, and patients who scored highly on either scale had greater heart attack risk. But adding CAC to PREVENT improved their predictive power even further.
- Intelerad Partners with RADPAIR: Intelerad signed a partnership with RADPAIR to integrate that company’s generative AI-powered reporting solutions with Intelrad’s InteleOrchestrator offering to automate radiology reporting. Intelerad said RADPAIR would become its “prime reporting partner,” giving a boost to RADPAIR as it seeks to build a network of PACS and enterprise imaging partners while helping Intelerad offer cutting-edge reporting technology.
- Quibim Added to Blackford Platform: Quibim and Blackford cemented a partnership that will make Quibim’s QP-Prostate AI algorithm for prostate cancer available on Blackford Platform. QP-Prostate evaluates image quality of prostate MRI scans, automatically segments the prostate, and identifies suspicious lesions. Quibim in March received FDA clearance for QP-Prostate CAD, the latest version of the solution.
- RamSoft Allies with Therapixel: RamSoft continues to cement alliances with imaging IT firms, this time tying up with French AI developer Therapixel. The firms will integrate Therapixel’s MammoScreen mammography AI software into RamSoft’s PowerServer and OmegaAI enterprise image management platforms, giving users seamless access to MammoScreen’s breast cancer detection tools. The companies are touting the integrated solution at this week’s SIIM 2025 conference.
- Rad AI Gets $8M from Health Systems: Rad AI raised an $8M strategic investment from four U.S. health systems: Advocate Health, Memorial Hermann Health System, Corewell Health, and Atlantic Health System. The funds are an extension of the $60M Rad AI raised in its recent Series C round and bring the round’s total funding to $68M.
- Lunit Touts Mammo Milestone: Lunit highlighted progress the company has made in the U.S. mammography market one year after its acquisition of Volpara Health Technologies. By next month, Lunit’s two mammography AI solutions – Insight DBT and Insight MMG – will be deployed at over 200 U.S. imaging facilities and used by 350-400 radiologists. And Lunit and Volpara together power over 1M mammograms annually in North America, reflecting Lunit’s goal in boosting its North American presence through the acquisition.
- NewVue Powers Konica Minolta Teleradiology: Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas is launching a new teleradiology offering powered by NewVue’s radiology workflow technology. The companies are highlighting Exa Teleradiology, Powered by NewVue at this week’s SIIM 2025 meeting, and are touting its radiology workflow orchestrator that automatically creates worklists and standardizes data. The companies also expanded their relationship from a referral agreement to a formal reseller relationship.
- Fine-Tuned LLM Detects Report Errors: Researchers in Radiology showed how a large language model they developed and fine-tuned was able to detect errors in radiology reports, such as left/right mistakes or transcription errors. They started with Meta’s Llama-3 foundation model and fine-tuned it on 2.3k reports, some of which were synthetically generated to boost training. The fine-tuned model outperformed both GPT-4 and BiomedBERT, a natural language processing tool for biomedical research. Such models could be used for proof-reading of radiology reports.
- FDA’s AI Slowdown? Has the pace of FDA marketing authorizations for new medical AI algorithms slowed down? And if so what does that mean for AI developers? Regulatory AI expert Hugh Harvey, MD, mulls both prospects, noting that the “pace and number of clearances has dropped off significantly.” He sees a shift toward generative AI occurring, and it could take longer to get approvals (the FDA in fact has still not yet approved a generative AI medical product).
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The Benefits of the Cloud for Enterprise Imaging
How are you preparing for the future of cloud-based enterprise imaging? In this downloadable e-book from Optum, learn about the benefits of cloud-based enterprise imaging and how to develop a strategy that works for you.
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Stop Shipping Discs!
By pivoting to a 100% digital fulfillment model for patient images and records, you can improve their experience while significantly reducing labor and shipping costs. Find out how on this page from Clearpath.
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Presenting Unboxing AI
Check out CARPL’s video series, Unboxing AI, featuring experts discussing AI and its future in radiology. The next episode on May 22 features Nathan Qin of Keya Medical – reserve your seat today.
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- Connect with Intelerad at SIIM 2025: Join Intelerad at booth #533 at SIIM 2025 to learn how they are redefining healthcare imaging with innovative solutions designed to provide a clear path to answers. Schedule your visit today.
- Feel the Freedom of Helium-Free MRI: Lift limitations and experience MRI excellence with Philips BlueSeal, the industry’s lightest, vent pipe-free, high-performance, helium-free 1.5T scanner. Save on helium and energy costs, achieve precise AI-enhanced diagnoses, enjoy faster scans, and optimized workflows. Learn more today.
- Start at the Source to Improve MRI: Looking for ways to improve MRI speed and image quality while addressing broader concerns in healthcare? The answer may lie in proven MRI physics in your existing scanner – learn how to unlock it with STAGE from SpinTech MRI.
- A Pivotal Moment for Clinical AI Policy: In this episode of The Radiology Report podcast, Medality’s Daniel Arnold interviews Peter Shen of Siemens Healthineers about major developments in AI regulation and reimbursement, including the introduction of the Health Tech Investment Act (S.1399).
- Connect with Calantic by Bayer at SIIM 2025: Visit Calantic by Bayer at SIIM 2025 to learn how they are helping clinicians leverage radiology AI to enhance the patient experience. See their schedule of presentations or book at meeting today at booth #231-235.
- See AGFA Innovations at SIIM 2025: Visit AGFA HealthCare at SIIM 2025 to see how their innovative approach to enterprise imaging is advancing diagnostic confidence, clinical collaboration, and operational efficiency across healthcare systems. Book a demo today or swing by booth #431-433.
- Meet Merge at SIIM 2025: Merge puts your workspaces, clinicians, and imaging transformation into focus. Explore their market-leading solutions at SIIM 2025 at booth #632, or schedule your visit today.
- Top-Tier Care at Rural Hospitals: Holzer Health System in Jackson, OH, treats local patients like family. In this video, learn how United Imaging equipped Holzer Health with its uMR 570 MRI scanner, helping them to offer top-tier care.
- Visit Kailo Medical at SIIM 2025: Learn about the latest synoptic reporting solutions by visiting Kailo Medical at booth #539 at SIIM 2025. Book an appointment today to find out how their technology can make radiology reporting easier while maximizing efficiency.
- Happening Today at SIIM 2025: Leaders from MedStar Health, UCHealth, LucidHealth, and PocketHealth take the stage at 9:45 a.m. PT to share how imaging teams are closing interoperability gaps, improving patient engagement with AI, and reducing enterprise risk. Find out more from PocketHealth’s team onsite.
- Make the Most of Your SIIM Experience with Mach7: See innovations from Mach7 Technologies in action at SIIM 2025. Schedule a demo of their industry-leading eUnity Enterprise Diagnostic Viewer or explore their groundbreaking UnityVue radiology solution. Reach new heights in imaging informatics with Mach7 at booth #514-516.
- AI Tools for Lung Cancer Screening: CT lung cancer screening is gaining momentum around the world. Learn about AI-based nodule detection tools that can improve the accuracy of low-dose CT scans in this video from Riverain Technologies.
- Visit Enlitic at SIIM 2025: Visit Enlitic at SIIM 2025 at booth #530 to learn about their solutions for data standardization and migration, including their new partnership with GE HealthCare powering the data migration feature in GE’s new Genesis cloud portfolio. Book a demo today.
- Book a Visage Demo at SIIM 2025: Visage Imaging is trailblazing medical imaging’s SaaS move to the cloud with an open cloud philosophy based on industry standards and multi-cloud support. Learn more by registering for a priority demo at SIIM 2025 or visit them at booths #627-631.
- Orchestrating AI Across the Healthcare Enterprise: If you’re attending SIIM 2025, stop by booth #237 to meet the Blackford team and discover how they are orchestrating AI across the healthcare enterprise to elevate patient care.
- Achieve More with AI You Can Trust: Visit Microsoft at SIIM 2025 to experience how Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare can empower your workforce and unlock insights. Request a meeting or stop by at booth #314-316.
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