The January Center for Intelligent Imaging (ci2) SRG Pillar Meeting featured University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) professor Alexandra Gersing, MD, PhD. Gersing's presentation, "How Artificial Intelligence Is Reshaping Musculoskeletal Imaging," discussed the current state of musculoskeletal (MSK) imaging and predictions for the future of artificial intelligence (AI) in MSK imaging.
AI is facilitating work being done at UCSF through interpretation of clinical and imaging data. "The ultimate goal of all this is to deliver the diagnosis to the patient as rapidly and accurately as possible," Gersing says. "Those are our goals in the MSK division at UCSF."
A combination of a lack of highly specialized physicians, an aging population and increased wait times put an emphasis on AI improvements in patient care. Additionally, the United Nations declared 2021-2030 the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, effecting MSK imaging significantly and placing a further emphasis on AI-enhanced care.
Sharmila Majumdar, PhD, Felix Liu, MS, Thomas M. Link, MD, PhD, Tugce Ulas, MD, Alexandra Gersing, MD, PhD, and other ci2 members contributed to arthritis research that analyzed whether muscle loss or gain had a significant impact on patient pain and knee joint degeneration. They determined, through automated muscle segmentation and biomarker extraction, that those with muscle loss experienced accelerated degeneration of the knee joint cartilage.
In on going studies, Gersing and collaborators utilize AI to facilitate the assessment of back pain biomarkers. "For all these studies that we are now looking into from a radiological perspective, we also really want to know what is the quality of the muscle like" using an automated segmentation tool, Gersing says.
Osteoporosis is a debilitating condition that is underdiagnosed. Using previously obtained CT scans, Gersing and her team of researchers were able to use AI to measure bone mineral density in patients with osteoporosis with the expectation of reducing injuries and hospitalizations. At UCSF, this interface is being implemented to automate bone mineral density measurements and determine if patients have osteoporosis using prior studies.
Gersing is the UCSF Director of Musculoskeletal Research and AI and the Clinical Director Musculoskeletal Quantitative Imaging Research. She leads multidisciplinary teams applying artificial intelligence to improve musculoskeletal imaging and patient care.
To learn more about the upcoming SRG Pillar meetings, visit the ci2 events page.
