ESTRO 2022

Session Item

Sunday

May 08

14:15 - 15:30

Auditorium 15

RTTs: AI and digital awareness

Co-Chair: Grete May Engeseth, Norway;

Chair: , Sweden

Overview: This session will encompass AI and digital awareness and the relation to RTTs. We will get an overview on how and were AI fit into the practice of RTTs and what we can gain from it. The first talk will highlight the professional, ethical, regulative, and educational considerations around AI that should be as equally emphasized as the clinical and technical advancements in order to ensure responsible integration while maximizing potential. The second talk will focus how to intgrate AI into our training. The radiation therapist of the future will need to become a decision maker competent to evaluate the clinical and psychosocial status of the patient and to select the optimum treatment plan of the day and not to rely on others to make these decisions so we efficiently can use its advantages. Lastly a talk on cyber security. This talk will address the effect of the cyberattack on a national radiotherapy service, the strategies employed to mitigate the effects of the attack as well as explore the lessons learnt for the health service from the attacks well as the lessons to be learned.

Session Type: Symposium

Track: RTT

Journey:

14:15 - 14:40

The changing face of the RTT profession in the AI environment

Speaker: , Canada

Presentation Number: SP-0541

Abstract

Abstract Title:

The changing face of the RTT profession in the AI environment

Authors:

Caitlin Gillan¹, Brian Hodges², David Wiljer², Mark Dobrow³

¹University Health Network, Joint Department of Medical Imaging, Toronto, Canada; ²University Health Network, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada; ³University of Toronto, Institute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation, Toronto, Canada

Show Affiliations

Abstract Text

Artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare will require consideration of employment, training, education, and professional regulation. Recognizing that we are best served by taking a proactive approach to considering the nature and potential scope of AI, both in its benefit to our patients and in its impact on healthcare and those who practice it, it is important that we equip ourselves to engage in the relevant conversations. In radiation medicine we find ourselves at a crossroads, where our professions need to decide how they envision the impact of AI in our practice, and how we can collaboratively define appropriate AI-enabled care alongside society, industry, and other stakeholders.

Gains in quality and efficiency in radiation medicine practice will require new workflows, skills and even models of care for all relevant professional groups. As we work to separate the reality from the hype, the cautious optimism from the fearmongering, and the human opportunities from the expansion of technology, we can begin to prepare for the future. Doing so will require an acknowledgement that we are not simply replacing humans with AI within the existing model of radiation medicine practice, but rather fundamentally disrupting practice by augmenting human abilities.

This session will highlight the professional, ethical, regulative, and educational considerations around AI that should be as equally emphasized as the clinical and technical advancements in order to ensure responsible integration while maximizing potential. Technology is only as good as the people and system equipped to support it.