Missed or delayed diagnosis of fractures on X-ray is a common error with potentially serious implications for the patient. Lack of timely access to expert opinion as the growth in imaging volumes continues to outpace radiologist recruitment only makes the problem worse.
The study in Radiology finds that AI may help address this problem by acting as an aid to radiologists, helping to speed and improve fracture diagnosis.
"We found that AI performed with a high degree of accuracy, comparable to clinician performance," said study lead author Rachel Kuo, NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Registrar, who is part of the Furniss Group at the Botnar Institute for Musculoskeletal Sciences. "Importantly, we found this to be the case when AI was validated using independent external datasets, suggesting that the results may be generalizable to the wider population."