The Role of Radiology in AI Highlighted at ACR 2025

The Economics Forum at ACR 2025, the American College of Radiology® (ACR®) annual meeting in Washington, DC, included a panel discussion moderated by Gregory N. Nicola, MD, FACR, chair of the Commission on Economics, and Christoph Wald, MD, PhD, MBA, FACR, vice chair of the ACR Board of Chancellors, focused on the informatics infrastructure ACR is implementing — including AI — to help support future regulatory wins on behalf of members.

AI was also the focus of a Listen and Learn session with panelists Woojin Kim, MD, Keith Dreyer, DO, PhD, FACR, FSIIM, Tessa Cook, MD, PhD, CIIP, FSIIM, and Bernardo Bizzo, MD, PhD.

The continuous monitoring of how AI models analyze images and interpret data generated a lot of discussion amongst the panelists, including how AI models need continuous monitoring so physicians can quickly identify any changes. They emphasized the importance of human oversight throughout the AI implementation process to identify potential errors and validate AI-generated outcomes. This reinforced the understanding that AI serves to support radiologists, not to replace them.

Human involvement is very important to monitoring for the subtle problems and trends, where AI lacks transparency and explainability in its decision-making process. The panel acknowledged that some physicians had issues picking out errors the AI technology produced. The panelists said that along with learning how to be a radiologist, they must get educated on how to use this new technology for the benefit of themselves and the care of patients.

The panelists urged attendees to provide feedback about how they are using AI so that the College can continue to build guidelines to help radiologists properly utilize AI in their practices.

The College will continue this discussion of AI throughout the year.

By Alexander Utano, associate editor, ACR Bulletin