The UK's National Health Service (NHS) is starting the world's biggest trial, using artificial intelligence (AI), to detect breast cancer. Two thirds of the circa 700,000 annual mammograms (breast scan) in England will be assessed to see if AI can read them as accurately as a trained radiologist. Currently, NHS hospitals operate a 'second reader' system. In this system, the second radiologist studies each mammogram to ensure that signs of cancer are not missed. The initial hope is that one radiologist can read the scan with AI providing a 'second opinion'. This would speed up the process and free up specialists to do other work (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/04/nhs-to-launch-worlds-biggest-trial-of-ai-breast-cancer-diagnosis). The use of AI in programmes, like this, require careful analysis/validation. Speedy diagnosis, of course, improves the patient's prognosis. If successful, however, it raises the possibility of a future, where mammogram screening is completely automated. Would folk be comfortable with that? Perhaps not for some time?
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