Using Artificial Intelligence to Read Chest X-rays

CheXNeXt app. Photo credit: Kurt Hickman.

November 20, 2018

A new artificial intelligence algorithm can reliably screen chest X-rays for more than a dozen types of disease, and it does so in less time than it takes to read this sentence, according to a new study led by senior author Matthew Lungren, MD, MPH.

The algorithm, dubbed CheXNeXt, is the first to simultaneously evaluate X-rays for a multitude of possible maladies and return results that are consistent with the readings of radiologists, the study says.

Scientists trained the algorithm to detect 14 different pathologies: For 10 diseases, the algorithm performed just as well as radiologists; for three, it underperformed compared with radiologists; and for one, the algorithm outdid the experts.