Mammograms Now Predict Cancer Before It Starts

# Beyond the Scan — Episode 10 ### Tuesday, February 24, 2026

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Hey there, welcome to Beyond the Scan! I'm Jackie, your host, and I'm so glad you're joining me today, Tuesday, February 24th, 2026.

Quick shoutout to our sponsor RadiologyJobs.com — they're doing amazing work connecting imaging professionals with great opportunities nationwide.

I've got some really exciting stories to share with you today — we're talking a genuine first in breast cancer risk prediction, a major leap forward in cardiac MRI, some coding changes you absolutely need to know about, and honestly... a couple of workforce stories that I think are going to hit close to home for a lot of you. Let's dive in.

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**STORY 1 — Clairity Breast Cancer Score**

Okay, so — picture this. A woman walks in for her routine mammogram. Nothing unusual, nothing alarming. But when she leaves, she has something she's never had before: a personalized score that tells her how likely she is to develop breast cancer in the future. <break time="1.0s" /> Not based on family history. Not based on a questionnaire. Based on the mammogram image itself.

That's not science fiction. That just happened — for real, for the first time ever — this past Sunday.

A company called Clairity Inc. has developed an FDA-authorized AI tool called the Clairity Breast cancer risk score, and the first clinical patient received that score this week. What makes this so remarkable is what it represents for mammography as a whole. We've always thought of mammography as a diagnostic tool — you come in, we look for something that's already there. But this technology flips that completely on its head. It transforms mammography into a *predictive* tool — one that can assess your future risk directly from the image.

I love this one because it's one of those moments where you can genuinely say: the game has changed. This is a historic milestone for women's health, and I think we're going to be talking about it for years. <break time="0.8s" /> The question I keep coming back to is — how does this change the conversation radiologists and technologists have with patients? Because suddenly, a screening mammogram carries a whole lot more weight.

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**STORY 2 — Inova & GE HealthCare SIGNA Sprint Elite**

Speaking of technology changing the game — let's talk about what's happening over at Inova Health System, because they just made history too.

Inova has become the very first health system in the world to implement GE HealthCare's brand new MRI system, called the SIGNA Sprint Elite. It's a 1.5 Tesla MRI — and what makes it stand out is how it combines that hardware with AI technology, including something called AIR Recon DL, which is essentially an AI-powered image reconstruction tool designed to produce sharper, clearer cardiac images.

Now, here's the detail that really caught my eye — this system can do *free-breathing* cardiac scans. And if you've ever tried to get a perfect cardiac MRI on a patient who can't hold their breath — whether that's a child, an elderly patient, or someone who's claustrophobic or anxious — you know exactly why that matters. It opens the door for better imaging on the patients who are hardest to image. That's huge.

Experts at Inova are also highlighting the role this plays in cross-specialty collaboration — bringing cardiology and radiology closer together. My take? This is what precision imaging looks like in practice. It's not just about prettier pictures. It's about getting the right information on the right patients who previously might have had to settle for something less.

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**STORY 3 — 2026 Radiology Coding Update**

Alright, now — switching gears to something that might not sound glamorous, but trust me, you need to hear this if billing or reimbursement touches your world at all.

The 2026 CPT code update is here, and it is *not* a small one. We're talking 288 new codes, 46 revised codes, and 84 deleted codes — all with relevance to radiology. That is a significant amount of change to absorb, and the details come from a new breakdown published by AuntMinnie.

Here's why this matters beyond just the paperwork. If your department is still using old codes that have been deleted, or missing new codes that apply to procedures you're already doing — that's money left on the table, or worse, a compliance issue. Billing errors don't just affect the bottom line; they can trigger audits, delays, and headaches nobody has time for.

I'd strongly encourage anyone in a coding, billing, or practice management role to dig into the specifics of this update sooner rather than later. And honestly? Even if you're a tech or a radiologist who thinks coding isn't your problem — understanding how your work gets billed is part of understanding the full picture of your department's health. <break time="0.7s" /> Pun intended.

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**STORY 4 — Residency Push Skips Radiology**

Now, this next one — I want to be upfront — this one frustrated me a little.

There's a federal initiative underway right now aimed at addressing the physician shortage in the United States. The approach? Fund more residency training slots to get more doctors into the pipeline. Sounds great, right? <break time="0.8s" /> Except radiology was left out.

According to a report from The Imaging Wire, the initiative notably excludes radiology from the specialties receiving those additional funded residency positions. And this is happening at a moment when demand for imaging is growing — not shrinking. We have an aging population, more complex cases, more imaging being ordered across every specialty. The need for trained radiologists is only going up.

What this omission does is widen the gap between supply and demand in our field — and that has downstream effects on workload, burnout, and wait times for patients. My concern here is that radiology keeps getting treated as a solved problem when it really isn't. Workforce planning in imaging needs to be part of the national conversation, not an afterthought.

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**STORY 5 — Radiology Compensation & Workforce Economics**

And that brings me to our final story today, which connects directly to what we just talked about — because it's about what's happening to radiologists already in the workforce.

An article from Diagnostic Imaging this week takes a hard look at radiologist compensation, and the picture isn't pretty. The piece draws on social media discussions — radiologists talking openly about their experiences — and what's emerging is a pattern: the 2 to 3 percent annual raises that were promised or expected to keep pace with inflation? <break time="1.0s" /> A lot of people aren't seeing them.

The article examines how shifting economic pressures are eroding the financial promises that many radiologists planned their careers around. And layered on top of that — burnout. Because when compensation stagnates and workload increases, that combination is a recipe for people leaving the field or burning out before they should.

I think this story matters beyond just the dollars and cents. It's about trust. It's about whether the promises made to people entering this specialty — or staying in it — are actually being kept. And with the residency pipeline already limited, as we just talked about, losing experienced radiologists to burnout or dissatisfaction is a problem the whole healthcare system will feel.

If you're navigating any of this — whether you're early in your career or years in — I'd really encourage you to check out RadiologyJobs.com. They're a great resource for understanding what's out there and what you're worth.

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Well, that's all we have for today's episode of Beyond the Scan. I've really enjoyed sharing these developments with you — from a genuinely historic moment in breast cancer screening to some real talk about the workforce challenges facing our field.

If you found today's discussion helpful, I'd love it if you'd subscribe and share with your colleagues. And hey, swing by our website at beyondthescan.io where we've got some great additional resources on these topics.

I'll be back next week with more exciting updates. This is Jackie signing off, and remember — what we do really does make a difference in people's lives every day. Take care!