NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — AI technology is changing the healthcare landscape far and wide, including right here in Hampton Roads.
Now, radiologists at Riverside Health System are using Artificial Intelligence to scan 3D mammograms, hoping to catch breast cancer sooner.
One in eight women in the U.S. are diagnosed with breast cancer. Debbie Holl remembers getting that phone call from her doctor 13 years ago.
"She says ‘I need to see you,'" Holl recalled. "That’s when it hits you that this is possibly breast cancer."
She said the cancer showed up in both her left and right breast, but she credits early detection with living cancer free for 12 years.
"I was diagnosed very early because I got mammograms every year," Holl said. "With the early diagnosis, and this is something that ladies need to know, that with early diagnosis, chances are you may not have to go through chemo and radiation."
Now, Riverside Health System wants to help other women catch their breast cancer early.
"We’ve been adding AI technology to the patient experience as a safety check, as a secondary reader," said Dr. Benjamin Pettus, a Radiologist with Riverside. "It functionally flags things to make sure that that was definitely evaluated and serves as a safety check."
Pettus said the AI technology implemented earlier this year has been trained on one million cases.
"We did a review of some of our toughest cases and surprisingly it found a majority of them," he said.
Although he said the technology is not perfect, it’s a great second set of eyes on the 3D mammograms for the radiologists.
"It’s helpful to make sure something that’s tireless is going over all of those images as well as we are and flagging things that could be suspicious," Pettus said. "AI is not to the point that you could just let it make the decisions on its own by any means, but it’s a perfect harmony."
Holl marvels at just how far technology has come since her diagnosis.
"Oh my word, if they had AI back then I can't imagine how many other women... that little things would be caught," she said. "Amazing things they’re doing in medicine with AI. That’s the miracle right there."
Pettus emphasized the importance of showing up for your annual mammogram.
"Breast cancer is basically 100% curable if you can find it small and early and get it dealt with," he said. "We’re just committed to finding anything as small and early as we can."
Holl echoed that sentiment:
"Early detection, ladies!"
Most health professionals say the recommended age to start annual mammogram screenings for women with average risk is 40.