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Risk-Screening Redux, Will AI Reduce Burnout, and Aidoc’s Foundation Nod
January 22, 2026
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Together with
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“Despite the optimism towards AI implementation in radiology, how AI affects radiologist burnout remains a ‘black box’, with the final impact yet to be determined.”
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Jay Parikh, MD, and Frank Lexa, MD, reviewing literature on AI’s impact on radiologist burnout.
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Agentic AI is emerging as a critical tool for managing the increasing technical complexity and fragmentation within healthcare IT ecosystems. Reserve your seat for this webinar at 12 PM ET/9 AM PT on February 24 to learn how Agentic AI can help you shift from a reactive “firefighting” IT model to a proactive, automated approach that can streamline radiology workflow.
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The idea of risk-based mammography screening is back with the publication of a new study in JAMA Network Open claiming that some risk-based strategies averted more breast cancer deaths with fewer false positives than age-based criteria. But like a previous paper on risk-based screening, the new findings raise concerns.
The idea behind risk-based screening is to focus healthcare resources on the people who need them most while sparing low-risk individuals from unnecessary medical interventions.
- But risk-based breast cancer screening needs more clinical validation before it can be adopted broadly. This was tried with the WISDOM study, but researchers found no statistically significant difference in biopsy rates and only a modest reduction in mammograms performed.
A slightly different tack was taken with the new study, which compared conventional age-based biennial screening to a package of risk-based approaches based on a patient’s five-year breast cancer risk as calculated by widely accepted techniques like the Gail model and BCSC calculator.
- Out of 50 risk-based strategies, nine averted more deaths than biennial age-based screening for women aged 40-74 (both were compared to no screening), and resulted in fewer false-positive recalls.
One such strategy highlighted by the authors used no screening for younger low-risk women, biennial screening for average-risk women, and annual screening for intermediate- and high-risk women, with the following results…
- 6% more breast cancer deaths averted per 1k women versus conventional screening (7.2 vs. 6.8).
- 8% fewer false-positive recalls (1,257 vs. 1,365).
- While other risk-based strategies saw death reductions as high as 7.5 deaths per 1k women and false-positive reductions of 8-23%.
One key thing to note with the new study is its use of biennial screening as the control group, in line with current USPSTF recommendations for women aged 40-74.
- But many clinical organizations like ACR, ACOG, SBI, and NCCN recommend annual screening, and the new study’s findings may have been very different if compared to an annual model.
The Takeaway
This week’s findings are generally more supportive of risk-based screening than those of last year’s WISDOM study. But the new paper’s marginal improvement in cancer deaths averted might disappear when compared with annual age-based mammography. And like WISDOM, its use of clinical models for risk prediction may soon be obsolete given rapid developments in AI-based risk assessment.
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Workflow Orchestration to Revolutionize Imaging
Intelligent teleradiology solutions can combat radiologist shortages with smarter workflows that reduce burnout and improve patient care. Find out how workflow orchestration solutions from Merge are making it possible.
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AI-Centric Radiology Reporting
KailoAir is a new AI-centric radiology reporting solution from Kailo Medical that combines real-time voice dictation, AI-powered prior study analysis, and structured reporting in a seamless browser-based workspace. No installation and no compromise.
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- Will AI Really Reduce Radiologist Burnout? AI is being touted as a solution to radiologist burnout by taking over mundane tasks. But a new literature review in European Radiology found little evidence to support that belief – at least so far. The authors found only two randomized controlled trials of AI’s impact on radiologists – both conducted in China and with contradictory conclusions. There are more studies on AI’s effect on burnout drivers like workload, but many had conflicts of interest and several meta-analyses found no impact.
- Aidoc’s Foundation Model Clearance: Aidoc got FDA clearance for a package of AI triage indications powered by its CARE foundation model. The clearance covers 11 AI applications for analyzing body CT scans in the emergency setting to detect acute conditions, and Aidoc plans to add X-ray indications over the next 18 months. The clearance is significant not just for Aidoc, but also because it shows that AI developers will be able to get FDA authorization for multiple clinical applications based on a single foundation model.
- Pediatric Radiation Dose Differs: Children getting CT and X-ray exams may be exposed to more radiation if they are being scanned at a non-pediatric hospital. A new study in JACR by Neiman HPI examined 5.4M outpatient pediatric exams and found that non-children’s hospitals have twice the CT use rate as pediatric facilities (1% vs. 0.5%) and 1.5X the rate for X-ray (12% vs. 7.5%). Children’s hospitals have higher utilization rates for MRI (0.9% vs. 0.5%) and ultrasound (2.5% vs. 1.7%).
- Medical Groups Fire Back Against CT “Harms:” The alleged “harms” of CT lung cancer screening have been overstated by research studies propagating misinformation. That’s according to a coalition of medical groups including ACR, ASTRO, and ATS, which jointly published a paper this week outlining how recent studies have overestimated CT screening’s rates of downstream testing and false positives, as well as cancer risk. The editorial picks apart the methodologies used in several recent studies, concluding that fear of lung screening could prevent some patients from undergoing medically necessary tests.
- Risk-Adapted CT Lung Screening: Mammography isn’t the only exam where risk-based screening is being investigated. In a new study in JAMA Network Open, researchers tested a risk-based CT lung cancer screening protocol on 86k former or current heavy smokers from the UK Biobank study. Instead of starting screening for everyone at age 50, screening was postponed from ages 53 to 67 based on the number of years since quitting smoking without raising the risk of lung cancer relative to a heavy current smoker who starts screening at 50.
- Microsoft Signs Partnership with BMS: Microsoft signed a partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb to integrate its Precision Imaging Network AI orchestration platform with BMS treatments for lung cancer. PIN supports AI algorithms for detecting lung cancer on both X-ray and CT images, and the new relationship will create an AI-enabled workflow that helps clinicians identify patients with non-small cell lung cancer and guide them to the best care pathways. This follows a number of imaging AI-focused lung cancer detection partnerships, such as Tempus and Qure.ai’s alliances with AstraZeneca.
- New Calcium Score Predicts Adverse Events: Researchers have developed a new scoring system to predict major adverse cardiovascular events, based on CT-derived calcium measurements. In a study with 313 patients, their New Total Calcium score – which included calcium data from other areas of the heart besides the coronary arteries – predicted MACE in patients getting aortic valve replacement with good AUC values at various time points: one year (0.91), two years (0.80), and three years (0.81). NTC could help identify high-risk patients getting valve repair.
- 4DMedical Raises $100M: Respiratory imaging company 4DMedical announced a massive funding round last week, getting commitments for USD $100M from institutional investors to purchase a mix of new and existing shares. The company will use the proceeds for U.S. commercialization of its CT:VQ technology for calculating lung ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) from CT scanners rather than nuclear medicine systems. 4DMedical has been successful in deploying CT:VQ at U.S. academic centers.
- CEM as Breast MRI Alternative: A new review article backs the use of contrast-enhanced mammography as an alternative to breast MRI for assessing tumor size prior to treatment. Researchers analyzed 21 studies with 1.1k patients, finding that both modalities overestimated tumor size by about 3 mm, with no statistically significant difference. What’s more, both MRI and CEM had comparable correlation coefficients with pathology (0.78 vs. 0.79, respectively). CEM could be an alternative to MRI in resource-limited settings or in women with MRI contraindications.
- Siemens Inks RFA Partnership with Avanos: Siemens Healthineers signed co-marketing partnership agreement with Avanos Medical, a developer of pain management treatments that include radiofrequency ablation that’s led by former Siemens Healthineers Americas chief executive Dave Pacitti. The companies will work together to pair Avanos therapy devices with Siemens mobile C-arms like Cios Select and Cios Flow, which can be used to direct pain management treatments. The partnership initially will focus on the U.S., especially outpatient centers.
- MBI Remains Underused for Breast Imaging: Molecular breast imaging remains underutilized in the U.S. as an adjunct to screening mammography for some women. Researchers in a study in Clinical Imaging found that from 2017 to 2022, only 3k women at 32 sites got MBI exams, in which a technetium-99m sestamibi radiotracer is used to image breast tissue. Usage was stable through 2021 but dropped 33% in 2022. Despite the decline, authors believe MBI remains a valuable alternative to breast MRI as a supplemental modality.
- Lung Cancer Death Rates to Drop for European Women: Researchers are predicting that lung cancer death rates for women in Europe will stop rising this year, reflecting a decline in smoking rates that began years ago. Female lung cancer death rates in 2026 should stabilize at 12.5 deaths per 100k women, a fall of 5% compared to 2020-2022 and reversing 25 years of growth. Death rates could fall even more quickly as European countries begin national CT lung cancer screening programs.
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Connected Imaging. Empowered Flow
Know those rare and indescribable moments at work when distractions melt away? AGFA HealthCare’s Enterprise Imaging Platform is designed to keep you in that hyper-focused state of mind all day long. Learn more about their solutions today.
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A Passion for Change
United Imaging’s passion for change was on display at RSNA 2025 with the launch of new products across multiple modalities, including the new uSonique ultrasound family shown as works-in-progress. Find out what drives the company on this page.
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Unlock Next-Generation AI with Foundation Models
Learn about Microsoft’s new family of cutting-edge multimodal medical imaging foundation models designed for healthcare organizations to test, fine-tune, and build tailored AI solutions specific to their needs, while minimizing extensive compute and data requirements.
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- Visage Imaging’s Top 5 from RSNA 2025: What were the top five trends from RSNA 2025? Visage Imaging set records for customer interest in its Visage 7 CloudPACS solution, and showcased Apple Vision Pro headsets with Visage Ease software. Learn about the other top trends on this page.
- The Power of a Smooth Go-Live: Don’t gamble on your healthcare institution’s go-live: take control of your PACS migration with ENDEX from Enlitic. Discover how ENDEX uses AI to standardize, normalize, and cleanse your imaging metadata before migration.
- Opportunistic Detection of CAC and Pulmonary Nodules: Achieve a newfound certainty of search for thoracic CT when using ClearRead CT from Riverain Technologies. It’s a natural addition for opportunistic CAC scoring and nodule detection, or as part of a CT lung cancer screening program.
- Cut Repetitive Manual Tasks: Discover how Rad AI’s radiology reporting software helps you speak less and say more by reducing dictation times up to 50% and words dictated up to 90%. Join 9 of the top 10 radiology practices using Rad AI to improve efficiency.
- It’s Time to Make AI Adoption Simple: Gleamer unifies a fragmented AI landscape into a single, simple, powerful platform with GleamerOS. Discover an AI ecosystem where everything is designed to be intuitive, consistent, and scalable, making AI adoption simpler than ever.
- Taking Flight at RSNA 2025: What were RSNA 2025 highlights at Mach7 Technologies? Watch this video to learn how the company debuted new customer engagement initiatives like the Flight Crew, as well their new Flamingo Architecture, to help customers achieve success.
- The Workstation of the Future: A dedicated team of radiologists shapes every aspect of the functionality and design of MosaicOS from Mosaic Clinical Technologies. Learn how every feature was built to eliminate distractions, amplify focus, and enhance the radiologist experience.
- Every Image Tells a Story: Intelerad’s enterprise image management solutions are empowering radiologists and patients while transforming radiology workflows. Learn about the technologies they highlighted at RSNA 2025 for empowering imaging professionals.
- Unlocking Precision – A New Era of AI-Powered CT: AI is transforming diagnostic imaging, especially in CT. Discover how Prof. Davide Ippolito is leading the way with the Philips CT 5300, pioneering ways to reduce radiation dose while improving image quality and setting a new standard for the future of CT.
- Will Radiologists Lead or Be Led? Radiology is facing a defining moment. In this episode of The Radiology Report, host Daniel Arnold of Medality sat down with Frank Lexa, MD, to talk candidly about what comes next for the specialty.
- The Next Generation of Universal Remote Imaging: Step into the next generation of universal remote imaging with LUMINOS Q.namix R from Siemens Healthineers. Designed for intuitive operation and patient comfort, this award-winning system sets a new standard in fluoroscopy. Explore its precision and efficiency.
- Bring Your Radiology AI into Your Clinical Workflows: CARPL enables healthcare providers and researchers to develop, test, and deploy their own AI models within existing clinical infrastructure. From seamless data ingestion and de-identification to model training, packaging, and live deployment, CARPL provides an end-to-end environment tailored for radiology.
- Advanced AI for Prostate MRI: QP-Prostate from Quibim is your advanced solution for detection and diagnosis of prostate cancer from MRI scans. Discover how it streamlines your workflow by detecting suspicious lesions, segmenting the prostate, and ensuring compliance with PI-RADS V2.1 guidelines.
- Elevating Breast Cancer Detection: Breast Suite from DeepHealth is a new package of AI-powered solutions delivering increased breast cancer detection rates, risk stratification tools, and viewing and reporting workflow acceleration. Find out how it can benefit your practice today.
- Transforming Echocardiography with AI: AI is rapidly becoming part of cardiovascular medicine, with innovations moving quickly from research into clinical practice. Hear clinicians share their experiences and reflections of integrating echo AI solutions from Us2.ai into daily workflows.
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