An automated chest X-ray interpretation system that uses artificial intelligence was able to identify key findings in X-rays accurately in about 10 seconds, according to researchers from Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City and Stanford (Calif.) University.
The researchers detailed their findings at the European Respiratory Society's International Congress in Madrid, Spain, Sept. 28-Oct. 2.
The system, called CheXpert, was developed by the Stanford Machine Learning Group. For the study, the system reviewed X-ray images taken at several emergency departments at Intermountain hospitals in Utah.
Radiologists categorized chest images from 461 Intermountain patients as being "likely," "likely-uncertain," "unlikely-uncertain," or "unlikely" to have pneumonia. They also pinpointed patients whose X-ray images showed pneumonia in multiple parts of the lungs. The system was then used to review the chest images and performed comparably to the radiologists.
The CheXpert system also created radiology reports for all key pneumonia findings in about 10 seconds.