Latest news with #radiology
Khaleej Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Khaleej Times
Why AI adoption in healthcare is a necessity, not a trend
Across hospitals in the UAE and beyond, diagnostic imaging is one of the most overburdened parts of the healthcare system. Radiologists are expected to interpret thousands of complex scans with speed and accuracy, all while dealing with an aging population, increasingly complex cases, and finite resources. The pressure is real and so are the consequences. Delays in diagnosis can lead to delays in treatment, and in high-stakes scenarios such as strokes, cancers, or internal bleeding, those delays can be life-altering. For years, we've relied solely on human expertise to meet this demand. But we're reaching a point where that model needs reinforcement. Not replacement—reinforcement. That's where AI comes in. From 'Nice to Have' to 'Need to Have' For a long time, AI in healthcare was viewed as an emerging innovation: interesting, potentially useful, but not yet central to care. That perception has shifted. Today, AI is becoming foundational to diagnostic workflows. In radiology departments, AI models can scan images in real time, flagging anomalies that might otherwise take hours or days to surface. They're trained on thousands of cases, and they operate without fatigue, bias, or distraction. This isn't about removing the human element; it's about enhancing it. 'In the Middle East and North Africa, heart disease is responsible for 14% of all deaths—making it one of the leading health threats in the region. At the same time, the number of people living with diabetes is expected to grow by 85% over the next two decades. That's nearly doubling the burden of a disease that already requires constant monitoring, medication, and long-term care. These numbers are a clear signal: chronic conditions are on the rise, and the pressure on health systems in this region is only going to grow. Without smarter, more scalable approaches to care, it's going to be harder and harder to keep up.' A growing number of hospitals in the UAE have begun integrating these tools into their systems not because it's trendy, but because it's necessary. From triaging high-risk patients faster to improving the consistency of diagnoses, the benefits are already being felt. This move toward digitalisation is part of a broader trend seen in the Middle East, with healthcare expenditures in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) predicted to reach $135.5 billion by 2027, buoyed by an increasing adoption of emerging technologies like AI. In fact, Saudi Arabia allocated more than $50 billion in 2023 to improve healthcare efficiency, including investments in digital health services. Recent developments showcased at major regional conferences have also reflected this shift. At Arab Health 2025, AI-powered diagnostic innovations took center stage—among them, MRI and CT systems that leverage deep-learning algorithms to enhance image clarity, reduce scan times, and improve patient throughput. One example included new AI-enhanced ultrasound tools designed to offer faster, more confident assessments at the point of care—critical in high-pressure clinical environments. These systems, already being adopted in select hospitals, illustrate how AI is quietly becoming part of everyday care delivery in the UAE. AI's Role in Speed and Diagnostic Accuracy One of the greatest strengths of AI in diagnostics is speed. A chest X-ray flagged by AI for signs of pneumonia can be moved to the top of the review queue. A brain scan showing signs of hemorrhage can trigger an immediate response. But speed alone isn't the point. The more important contribution AI makes is in reducing diagnostic error. AI, when properly trained and deployed, can act as a second set of eyes—one that's tireless and able to catch the subtleties. Studies from multiple health systems globally are showing that diagnostic accuracy improves when AI and human expertise work together. And when diagnostic quality improves, patient care improves. In fact, research has shown that AI-assisted diagnosis of mammograms can detect 20% more cancers, underscoring the immense potential for AI to enhance diagnostic precision. The UAE is in a Unique Position to Lead Few countries are as well positioned as the UAE to lead the way in AI-powered diagnostics. Government strategies, such as the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence and the UAE's broader digital health vision, have laid a clear foundation. Hospitals here are technologically advanced, and leadership teams are often more agile in implementing innovation than their counterparts in other regions. The UAE's thriving AI agenda is reflected in the expected growth of its AI market, which, at USD 3.47 billion in 2023, is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43.9% through 2030. We're already seeing pilots and case studies across both public and private health networks that are proving the value of AI. In some cases, it's about improving radiology throughput. In others, it's about extending high-quality diagnostics into under-resourced areas through remote AI interpretation. Emirates Health Services has already integrated AI tools into radiology workflows—particularly in areas like visa screening and mammography, helping shorten turnaround times and easing the burden on physicians. These efforts not only reduce repetitive tasks but also help healthcare professionals focus on higher-value decision-making. Even established providers like American Hospital Dubai have begun incorporating AI-enabled imaging systems in collaboration with tech partners—signaling how AI is moving from pilot to practice. With AI predicted to contribute Dh335 billion to the UAE's GDP by 2030, healthcare applications are set to be a driving force in this economic growth. The Next Chapter: From Diagnostics to Prediction Imaging is just the beginning. To truly understand a patient's health, we can't rely on just one type of data. In modern medicine, we work with a wide range of data types, or what we call multimodal data. Soon, AI will support physicians in anticipating disease rather than reacting to it. Models that analyse not only scans but also clinical histories, lab results, and genomics will provide predictive insights—flagging patients at risk of chronic illnesses or relapse before symptoms appear. This kind of proactive, personalised care could fundamentally change how we approach medicine. But it won't happen automatically. It requires investment, regulation, clinician engagement, and above all, trust in accuracy of AI. AI is no longer just an assistant in the diagnostic room—it's becoming the backbone of a more resilient, more efficient healthcare model. As healthcare expenditure in the GCC continues to rise and the AI sector grows exponentially, hospitals that integrate AI thoughtfully will be faster, safer, and better equipped to handle what comes next. Patients will benefit from earlier interventions, more accurate diagnoses, and a more consistent standard of care, regardless of where they are or who they see. We're not talking about science fiction. This is happening now, and the UAE is on the front foot. The opportunity isn't just to adopt AI. It's to lead with it.
BBC News
27-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Radiology service upgraded at Uist and Barra Hospital
Radiology equipment at Uist and Barra Hospital on Benbecula has been upgraded with £300,000 of support from the Scottish government. NHS Western Isles said the equipment had "many advanced features" which would improve radiation safety and allow patients to view images on the X-ray ceiling of the radiology department's treatment room has also been replaced. The previous equipment was more than 12 years old. The health board has thanked patients and staff for patience during disruption to the service when the revamp was taking place.
Fast Company
27-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Fed up with the job market, some white-collar workers are pivoting to blue-collar work
Kelly Krasner was always interested in healthcare, but losing both parents to cancer when she was 24 reinforced what she thought would be a lifelong calling. After spending 13 years helping hospitals integrate more cancer screening and diagnosis technologies as a radiology sales and marketing director, Krasner spent six more working at various healthcare technology startups. When her company downsized and she lost her job in 2023, however, Krasner said it felt nearly impossible to get back into the industry. 'I was applying and applying, and unfortunately—perhaps because of my age, my status, or people thinking I had to have a high title or a high income—I just wasn't getting the roles,' she says. 'I was okay with less money. I wasn't really interested in the title. I was just interested in making a difference.' After nearly a year searching for a role in the industry in which she had spent almost two decades, Krasner, who had juggled small side ventures throughout her career, decided to try something completely different.
The Sun
26-05-2025
- General
- The Sun
I found strength to end my marriage to my abusive husband but I fear eight-month affair is now over
DEAR DEIDRE: I'VE had the most beautiful sex with a colleague — it was the opposite of how my abusive husband treated me and the start of an eight-month affair. I've even found the strength to end my marriage but now I'm very worried that my love affair is over. I'm a 43-year-old woman. My work as a radiologist has always been an escape from my toxic relationship. Over the years I got close to a male colleague who's a couple of years younger than me. One day a woman came in with a broken arm — her boyfriend had beaten her. The incident really triggered me and this colleague spotted how upset I was. He invited me for a drink later saying he was worried about me. One drink led to more and we then had incredible sex in his car. It felt wonderful to be desired again. He wasn't happy with his wife and within weeks we admitted we loved each other. My marriage, to my mind, had ended long ago. My monster of a husband became abusive after his mother died. He's 47. He began drinking heavily and would beat me but always ensured I could hide my bruises. Two months ago my lover left his wife to rent a flat in town and I finally left my husband. I decided I wouldn't move straight in, just in case of gossip. Now this guy has been seconded to a different department and he's not answering calls or texts. I'm pleased to be out of my marriage but I'm worried about the future with the new man I love. Dear Deidre: Cheating and can you get over it It is wise not to hurtle into your next relationship, and to have suggested living separately. The thrill of an affair is so different to a committed relationship. Once you mentioned 'gossip', he may have been worried about how his bosses, friends or family would see things. At best, accept he's mixed up and needs some space. He's not handled this well but tell him you're ready to talk when he is – but give yourself a time limit. See this as your opportunity to reassess and adjust. If he doesn't come back within that time, you might have to accept he's not in it for the long haul. Your ex was abusive and perhaps you've fallen for another man you cannot rely on. My support pack, Finding The Right Partner For You, explains more. CLIMAX IS SLOW SO I DODGE FULL SEX DEAR DEIDRE: I'VE never had sex with my girlfriend because I'm worried it will take me too long to climax. She's a virgin and I've had sexual partners in the past, but I've never had full sex. She's 17 and I'm 19. We do have a lot of foreplay and sometimes she gives me oral sex but it takes so long for me to get to that peak of excitement. It's been like that with other girls too. I do things for her but we've not gone all the way because I feel useless. My girlfriend keeps asking when we are going to have full sex but I'm scared she'll get fed up if it takes too long. Can you help? DEIDRE SAYS: The first thing to tell you is that most women don't orgasm through intercourse, so lots of foreplay is exactly what you should be doing. Many men don't climax through oral sex. Your first sexual relationship doesn't come with a manual, so you're bound to feel awkward and clumsy but remember, you're in this together and try to enjoy it. To reach climax you need to feel relaxed and confident together. If you don't get this right the first time, have a giggle about it and try again another day. My support packs – First-time Fears and Find It Hard To Climax? should help you to feel more confident. Don't forget to use contraception too. GIRLFRIEND SEEMS IDEAL BUT FEAR I'M MISSING OUT DEAR DEIDRE: I LOVE my girlfriend but sometimes I wonder whether the grass is greener. I've never cheated – in fact, she has been my one and only partner. We are both 23. I'm a guy and we met at university and now live together in our university town. We have been loyal to one another, where other couples we know have cheated and had fall-outs. People ask us what the secret is – maybe it's that we rarely argue. I often think she's the female version of me. My parents are still together but their best friends are going through a divorce after 25 years together. I do wonder whether this could ever happen to us. Is it possible for you to love one person and never stray towards fancying somebody else? DEIDRE SAYS: Yes, of course. But even in the most solid of relationships it's normal to fancy a person outside of the partnership. The difference is whether you act on it or not. The key is realising that what you are looking for, you already have. In our teens and 20s we try lots of relationships but it's usually painful. If you've hit the jackpot with your girlfriend already, then that's fantastic. Don't spoil things by looking elsewhere for a change of personality. My support pack, Learning About Relationships, will help unscramble your feelings. IT'S CLEAR MUM FAVOURS BRUV DEAR DEIDRE: IT'S said that parents don't really have favourites but my mother definitely does – my brother. She smothers him with love. He's a grown man of 27 and he lives with his girlfriend and I bet she's sick of it. My mum texts him every single night and says goodnight to them both. I'm a woman of 24 and I live with my boyfriend. Mum rarely messages me. I have to do all the running around for her because I live near her so she only texts me if she needs something urgently. I visit her every week and she gives me a list of errands. If we eat together it's usually a takeaway, yet if my brother visits her once in a blue moon, she'll always cook his favourite roast dinner. She's 62. Our dad died years ago and Mum never found anyone else to be with. She has one close friend who goes to church with her and other than that, it's me who calls in on her. I feel so taken for granted sometimes – I don't want to feel jealous of my brother but I do. DEIDRE SAYS: My guess is that your brother has more of your father's traits than you do, so she likes to care for him as she once did your dad. But she may not realise that she's being so obvious and damaging your relationship in the process. Take your mum out for lunch or a coffee and tell her that you want to talk. Explain that you love her but that her actions are upsetting you. Gently tell her that while she may not be aware of this, she treats you both quite differently. If she is reminded of your father when she sees your brother then she can talk with Sue Ryder ( 0808 164 4572) which offers six weeks of free bereavement counselling. Let's hope she takes your feelings on board and treats you more equally from now on.
New York Times
23-05-2025
- Health
- New York Times
One Type of Mammogram Proves Better for Women With Dense Breasts
Cancer screening poses a quandary for women with dense breast tissue. They're at elevated risk for breast cancer, but mammograms often miss tumors buried in dense breasts — and insurers often resist paying for additional scans that may help find the masses. Now a large study comparing various types of scans has found that mammography enhanced with iodine-based dye can detect three times as many invasive cancers in dense breast tissue as ultrasound. And so-called contrast-enhanced mammography can find tumors that are much smaller than those found by regular mammography. M.R.I.s are better at detecting more tumors than standard mammograms, the study found, but are considerably more expensive. The scans were given to women with dense breast tissue who had already undergone mammograms that hadn't turned up any abnormalities. 'Contrast-enhanced mammography needs to become standard of care for women with dense breasts,' if they are at high risk of developing breast cancer, said Dr. Fiona J. Gilbert, a professor of radiology at the University of Cambridge's School of Clinical Medicine. She is lead author of the study, which was published Wednesday in The Lancet. Tumors typically show up as white spots on mammograms, but dense breast tissue also appears white, obscuring the tumors. 'When you have lots of white normal breast tissue, it's hard to see the white cancers,' Dr. Gilbert said. 'But when you do the contrast, the cancers take up the iodine, and all you're seeing is this cancer lighting up.' A large Dutch study published in 2019 showed that M.R.I.s are more effective than standard mammography at finding tumors in dense breast tissue. The new study is the first randomized controlled clinical trial to compare M.R.I.s, ultrasounds and contrast-enhanced mammography in women with dense breast tissue. JoAnn Pushkin, executive director of the educational group DenseBreast-info, said the study showed that contrast-enhanced mammograms could save lives. They not only found more tumors but detected them when they were small and had not yet spread to the lymph nodes. 'This means these cancers were found early enough that most were still contained within the breast,' Ms. Pushkin said. 'These were tragedies averted. If they had not been found, they would have grown undetected until they were horror stories.' But while contrast-enhanced mammography is available in some centers in the United States, its use for breast cancer screening has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. (It is more often used as a diagnostic tool after suspicious findings appear on a regular mammogram.) Partly that's because of concern over allergic reactions to the contrast agent, which are uncommon but can be severe, according to Dr. Wendie Berg, a professor of radiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and chief scientific adviser to DenseBreast-info. Dr. Gilbert, the study's lead author, also cautioned that while extra imaging can lead to earlier detection in women with dense breasts, it may also increase overdiagnosis and overtreatment of a medical condition that may never become life-threatening if left alone. Yet most of the tumors detected with the contrast-enhanced scans actually were invasive and potentially life-threatening, Dr. Berg said. These cancers show up more readily when dye is used. Contrast-enhanced mammograms are more cost-effective than M.R.I. scans, and they could be made more widely available at existing mammography centers with staff training and sometimes technology upgrades, Ms. Pushkin said. The new study, carried out at 10 screening sites in the United Kingdom between Oct. 18, 2019, and March 30, 2024, was the kind of trial considered the gold standard in medicine. More than 9,000 women aged 50 to 70 who had dense breast tissue and normal mammograms were randomly assigned in roughly equal numbers to receive standard digital mammography, M.R.I.s, ultrasounds or contrast-enhanced mammography. About 6,305 completed the additional imaging tests. M.R.I. scans turned up 17.4 cancers per 1,000 exams, while ultrasounds found only 4.2 cancers per 1,000 exams. Contrast-enhanced mammograms detected 19.2 cancers per 1,000 exams, but the difference between M.R.I. and contrast-enhanced mammography was not statistically significant. Not all of the tumors were invasive. M.R.I.s revealed 15 invasive cancers per 1,000 exams, ultrasounds found 4.2 invasive cancers per 1,000 exams, and contrast-enhanced mammography detected 15.7 invasive cancers per 1,000 exams. Most of the cancers were less than two centimeters in size, and had not spread to the lymph nodes. Detecting cancers when they are smaller should lead to better outcomes, Dr. Gilbert and her colleagues said. But the grade of the cancer — a measure of its abnormality and thus aggressiveness — is also important. The research did not follow the patients long enough to learn whether using contrast-enhanced mammography would ultimately reduce deaths. There were adverse events associated with the use of iodine dye. Twenty-four patients who underwent contrast-enhanced mammograms had reactions, and three experienced so-called extravasation, in which the dye leaks out of blood vessels into adjacent tissue. There were no adverse events associated with ultrasound, and there was one case of extravasation among the women who received M.R.I.s, in which contrast dye is sometimes used. Among the trial participants whose cancer was discovered during a supplemental M.R.I. was Louise Duffield, 60, who lives in Ely, near Cambridge. Ms. Duffield was invited to participate in the trial in 2023, after her regular mammogram screening showed that she had very dense breasts. When she came in for an extra M.R.I., the scan identified a small lump. A biopsy determined that the tumor was Stage 0, or very early, and confined within the milk ducts. Ms. Duffield had surgery to remove the tumor six weeks later, by which time it had already grown larger than it had appeared on the scans, hospital officials said. Because of the location of the tumor, Ms. Duffield would have had difficulty identifying it with a self-exam. And since the tumor was not detected during her regular mammogram, she would not have had to come in for another scan for at least three years, based on U.K. guidelines. Ms. Duffield was treated with radiation and is now free of cancer. 'The tumor was deep in the breast, so if I hadn't been on the trial, it could have gone unnoticed for years,' Ms. Duffield said in a statement. 'Without this research, I could have had a very different experience.'
