FDA approves AI technology to help improve breast cancer detection

A breakthrough in AI breast cancer detection technology has been approved by the FDA.

The tech company, "Clairity," is responsible for the first FDA-approved AI platform that helps predict a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer in the next five years.

We spoke with those who developed the AI platform and those in the medical community about how this helps with early detection.

Eric Wiener, the director of Yale Cancer Center, said we are in the very early stages of artificial intelligence.

“AI is going to be huge in medicine," Winer said.

Winer said the current ways to detect breast cancer cannot be ignored, but can also be improved.

“Mammography is not necessarily the next best thing since sliced bread; we need to do better than that," Winer said.

Connie Lehman, the founder of the technology company "Clairity" and a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School, is trying to do just that.

“Clairity Breast,” which was recently approved by the FDA, uses AI to analyze a mammogram and can catch abnormalities missed by the human eye.

“We're predicting, not right now, whether or not a woman has breast cancer,” Lehman said. “But what does her future look like? What is her future five-year risk of developing breast cancer?”

She said right now, it is very difficult to determine a woman’s actual risk of developing breast cancer. 85% of patients that are diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history.

Dr. Madhavi Raghu, with CT Breast Imaging, said it is a good thing more and more people are coming in for preventative care.

“When we have powerful tools like AI, it’s really going to help our radiologists make more accurate diagnoses,” Raghu said.

But she said the personal connection between a doctor and patient is irreplaceable.

"Many of my patients really like it when I go into the room and tell them everything's OK. And it's nice to hear that from another human being," Raghu said.

As for the rollout of the new technology, it is already in the works.

Lehman said they are hopeful it will be available by the end of the year.