Artificial intelligence could soon play a larger role in breast cancer screenings, according to comments made by healthcare executives on Apr. 17. Mitchell H. Katz, MD, President and CEO of New York City Health and Hospitals, said during a Crain’s New York Business panel that AI models may be able to take over some tasks currently performed by human radiologists.
Katz said this shift could lead to significant cost savings for hospitals if regulatory challenges are addressed. “We could replace a great deal of radiologists with AI at this moment, if we are ready to do the regulatory challenge,” Katz said. Sandra Scott, MD, CEO of One Brooklyn Health, supported the idea as potentially transformative for safety-net institutions like hers: “I’m in charge of a safety-net institution. It would be a game-changer.”
Despite support from some administrators, experienced radiologists have raised concerns about relying too heavily on AI for medical imaging decisions. Mohammed Suhail, a radiologist at North Coast Imaging in San Diego, criticized the idea that AI alone can ensure patient safety: “Any attempt to implement AI-only reads would immediately result in patient harm and death,” Suhail commented. “Hospitals are happy to cut costs even if it means patient harm, as long as it’s legal.”
David Lubarsky, MD, MBA, president and CEO of Westchester Medical Center Health Network offered another perspective on integrating technology into care delivery. He claimed their current system for breast cancer screening is highly accurate: “For women who aren’t considered high risk, if the test comes back negative, it’s wrong only about 3 times out of 10,000,” Lubarsky told the Crain’s New York Business audience.
The debate highlights broader challenges faced by healthcare systems adopting new technologies such as artificial intelligence. While recent studies suggest limitations—such as one published in JAMA Network Open showing high rates of misdiagnosis by AI chatbots—many agree that careful development practices and robust training are necessary before fully replacing human expertise.
As hospitals consider expanding their use of artificial intelligence tools in clinical settings like cancer screening and diagnostics, experts say patients should remain cautious about computer-generated diagnoses until further evidence supports their reliability.
