AI in Radiology

Radiology has the most AI tools of any specialty. Triage of chest X-ray, head CT bleeds and stroke, and screening mammography reading are in routine use in many centres. Report drafting and general-purpose imaging foundation models are still early.

What AI does in Radiology

Chest X-ray triageroutine

Flags films likely to show pneumothorax, consolidation, nodules or TB signs so these are read first. Also used in TB screening programmes.

Examples: Qure.ai qXR, Lunit INSIGHT CXR

Intracranial haemorrhage and stroke triage on CTroutine

Alerts the team when a head CT or CT angiogram shows a bleed or large vessel occlusion.

Examples: Aidoc, Qure.ai qER

Screening mammography readingearly adoption

AI acts as a second reader or sorts normal from suspicious screens. A Swedish randomised trial (MASAI) tested AI-supported reading against standard double reading.

Examples: Lunit INSIGHT MMG, Transpara

Organ and lesion segmentationearly adoption

Automatic outlines of organs on CT and MRI for volumes, planning and follow-up measurements.

Examples: TotalSegmentator, nnU-Net

Lung nodule detection and trackingearly adoption

Finds nodules on chest CT and compares size with the prior scan.

Examples: Products listed in the ACR AI Central database

Draft report generationresearch

Vision-language models write a first draft of a report from the image. Accuracy and safety are under study.

Examples: Research models, not a routine tool

Foundation models for imagingresearch

Large models pre-trained on many scans and later adapted to a task with little extra data.

Examples: Research models

routine = in everyday use in many centres · early adoption = in use at some sites, evidence still building · research = studies only

Key ideas for this specialty

Classification: The model gives one label for a whole image, such as normal or pneumothorax present.
Detection: The model draws a box around a finding, such as a lung nodule, and may give a confidence score.
Segmentation: The model outlines each pixel of an organ or lesion. This gives volumes, for example liver volume or tumour size.
Triage / worklist prioritisation: The tool does not make the diagnosis. It moves scans with likely urgent findings to the top of your reading list.
External validation: Testing the model on scans from a different hospital or scanner. A model that only works on data from its own hospital is not ready for your department.
Automation bias: The tendency to accept the AI answer even when your own read says otherwise.

New to the basics? Start with the theory lessons.

Tools

Searchable database of imaging AI products with listed regulatory status.

Regulatory status: Database lists status per product

Open platform for imaging AI challenges, datasets and algorithms.

Regulatory status: Not listed

Open-source tool that segments many organs on CT and MRI.

Regulatory status: Not listed

Open-source self-configuring segmentation framework used as a research baseline.

Regulatory status: Not listed

Large free archive of cancer imaging datasets for research.

Regulatory status: Not listed

Qure.aiinstitutional

Indian company with chest X-ray and head CT AI products.

Regulatory status: Not listed

Lunitinstitutional

Chest X-ray and mammography AI products.

Regulatory status: Not listed

Aidocinstitutional

Triage AI for CT findings in emergency radiology.

Regulatory status: Not listed

Independent register of radiology AI products with evidence summaries.

Regulatory status: Not listed

A listing here is not an endorsement. Ask any vendor for its CDSCO licence and class before clinical use.

Where to learn

ACRarticlefreebeginner

Practical pages on how to choose and monitor AI tools.

Radboud University Medical Centerarticlefreeadvanced

See how algorithms are benchmarked on real tasks.

RSNAcoursepaidintermediate

On-demand case-based modules for residents; foundational, advanced, emergency and chest tracks.

ACR, CAR, ESR, RANZCR, RSNAguidelineNot listedintermediate

Joint five-society checklist for the whole life of an AI tool.

NEJMarticleNot listedbeginner

Clear overview by Rajpurkar and Lungren.

DeepLearning.AI on CourseracourseNot listedintermediate

Includes diagnosis from chest X-ray and MRI segmentation.

Do it yourself

Run TotalSegmentator on a CT

Install TotalSegmentator, run it on a de-identified or public CT, and view the organ masks. Check three organ volumes against your own judgement of the images.

Open the dataset or tool →
Explore a public imaging collection

Pick a collection on The Cancer Imaging Archive, download a few cases and open them in a free viewer. Note what labels exist and what is missing.

Open the dataset or tool →
Read a challenge leaderboard

Open a Grand Challenge task in your sub-specialty. Read how the test set was built and ask whether it matches your patients.

Open the dataset or tool →

Use public or properly de-identified data only, and get ethics approval before any project on your own patients.

Papers worth reading

Societies and guidance

Indian national radiology society; check its site for AI sessions and courses.

AI usage guidance and the AI Central product database.

AI resources and guidance for UK radiology.

AI certificate program and imaging AI education.

Recent updates

22 Aug 2026
Evidence

Chest X-ray AI did not improve resident accuracy in a prospective crossover study

In Academic Radiology, five radiology residents read 1,861 chest radiographs with four commercial AI tools. Accuracy did not improve overall and fell for pleural effusion and nodules because of false positives, though three of five residents read 6 to 17 seconds faster.

Source: Omnicuris Medshots
10 Aug 2026
India

FICCI-Praxis report names AI diagnostics as the first large-scale medtech use in India

The report 'AI in MedTech' was released by Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda at India Medical Device 2026. It lists data readiness, regulation and reimbursement as the three gaps between pilots and wide use.

Source: Medical Dialogues
23 Jul 2026
Tools

HOPPR releases a chest CT foundation model that writes narrative findings

HOPPR's fifth foundation model reads 3D chest CT volumes and describes findings across lung, upper abdomen, heart, mediastinum and soft tissue, including pneumothorax and pulmonary embolism. It is offered through the company's deployment services to radiology departments.

Source: Diagnostic Imaging
9 Jun 2026
Tools

Harrison.ai releases Harrison.Rad 1.5 for research use

The radiology model drafts narrative reports using the clinical question, patient history and prior studies, and was trained on about 6 million imaging studies. It is not cleared for clinical use and is available for research access only.

Source: AuntMinnie
30 Jan 2026
Evidence

Lancet: full MASAI results show AI-supported mammography screening lowered interval cancers by 12%

In the Swedish randomised trial of over 100,000 women, AI-supported screening cut interval cancer diagnoses by 12% with similar false positives (1.5% vs 1.4%). It also found 16% fewer invasive and 27% fewer aggressive-subtype cancers between screens.

Source: ecancer
13 Jan 2026
Tools

Google releases MedGemma 1.5 and MedASR as open models

MedGemma 1.5 4B reads CT, MRI and histopathology images and runs locally, and MedASR is a medical dictation speech model that Google says makes 58% fewer errors on chest X-ray dictation than general models.

Source: Google Research
All updates →

Links checked 3 October 2026. “Not listed” means we could not confirm the detail, not that it is absent. Educational material, not clinical advice.