Mammographs Eyeballed by Computers
I read in the New England Journal of Medicine that in many European countries, it is standard for two people to
read mammogram films as opposed to having just one person read them as it is
practiced in the United States. Having two people read the films obviously
increases the chance that something that should be looked at will be caught.
However, this can be a time and resource-consuming process. In the New England
Journal of Medicine, I saw an article from a group of scientists who wondered
if there might be a way to use computers to read the films as a second set of
“eyes” instead of another person. If so, can it be as accurate as
two sets of human eyeballs?
This study found that the cancer-detection rate (people with
definite cancer) was about the same with one person reading with
computer aid and with two people reading the films. However, the recall rate
(people with suspicious masses that could be cancer) was significantly
higher in the single person with computer aid group. I see an up-side and a
down-side to these findings. The up-side: Using one person as opposed to two
frees up time and resources to read more mammogram films. The down-side: The
recall rate is higher, meaning that many people who have benign tumors may be
being called back for further testing. This probably uses more time and
resources than having two people initially read the scans.
It’s very easy to connect this research with
computer-assisted projects like our own item parsing pilot, Lucy, or with our
interest in the field of computer simulations in general. Even when results
like these seem to break even, it’s important that people are doing this
kind of research. We’ll never figure out what technology works best
without people experimenting in this field.
For those who are interested in the science-y numbers, check out the article in the New England Journal of Medicine 2008 Oct 16;359(16):1675-84. Epub 2008 Oct 1.
