EPISODE · S2 E15 · Apr 23, 2026 · 7 MIN

Courts Now Decide What Radiologists Are Responsible For

Your liability may now start before you ever open the images.

Transcript

Hey there, welcome to Beyond the Scan! I'm Jackie, your host, and I'm so glad you're joining me today, Thursday, April 23rd, 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!

And I do mean exciting — though fair warning, a couple of these stories are the kind that might make you set down your coffee and go, "wait, what?" So let's dive right in.

Okay, first up — and this one is genuinely a big deal for anyone who reads or orders imaging — there is new case law making its way through the legal system that could hold radiologists accountable for whether an imaging order was actually appropriate in the first place. Not just whether the read was accurate. Whether the scan should have been ordered at all.

Now, let me sit with that for a second, because traditionally, radiologists have operated in a pretty defined lane — you get the order, you interpret the images, you report your findings. The question of whether that MRI or CT was clinically justified? That's usually been the referring physician's responsibility. But this new court ruling, reported by Radiology Business, could start shifting some of that liability onto the radiologist's side of the fence.

I think what makes this so significant is the ripple effect it could have on everyday practice. If radiologists are now potentially on the hook for appropriateness, that changes the conversation around things like clinical decision support tools, peer review processes, and how closely rads are communicating with referring clinicians. My take? This is one of those slow-moving legal developments that could quietly reshape radiology practice standards in a really profound way. If you haven't already been paying attention to imaging order appropriateness at your institution, this might be the nudge to start.

Now, speaking of things that are reshaping how radiology operates — let's talk AI, because honestly, it's impossible to do an episode right now without it, and today we've got not one, not two, but three AI-related stories. And they paint a really interesting picture together.

Let's start with the good news. Aidoc — a company a lot of you in the imaging world probably already know — just received FDA clearance for what they're calling a comprehensive AI triage solution. And this one is powered by something called the CARE foundation model. Now, in plain terms, what this does is help prioritize critical findings on CT scans — so the most urgent cases bubble up to the top of the radiologist's worklist automatically. The reporting on this from Signify Research highlights that this kind of tool is specifically designed to help manage imaging backlogs and reduce emergency department crowding.

And I love this one because — think about it — ED crowding is one of those problems that feels so big and systemic that it's hard to imagine a single technology making a dent. But when you can intelligently sort through a mountain of CT studies and flag the ones that need eyes on them right now? That's not a small thing. That's potentially the difference between a stroke patient getting treated in time or not. The FDA clearance here is a meaningful milestone, and I'll be watching to see how widespread adoption looks over the coming months.

Alright, but here's where the AI picture gets more complicated — and more interesting. Because right around the same time we're celebrating clearances like Aidoc's, the FDA also made headlines for rejecting an exemption request from an AI firm in radiology. The details on which company and exactly what was being requested are limited in the reporting, but what the story from Radiology Business makes clear is this: the FDA is not giving AI a free pass. Regulatory scrutiny on AI tools in medical imaging is real, it's active, and it's tightening.

I think this is actually healthy — even if it's frustrating for companies trying to move fast. The message seems to be that the bar for what gets deployed in clinical settings needs to stay high. And given what I'm about to tell you next... yeah, that scrutiny feels pretty justified.

Because here's the one that really stopped me in my tracks this week. A new report has named — and I want to make sure I get this right — "navigating the AI diagnostic dilemma" as the number one patient safety concern in healthcare for 2026. Number one. Out of everything. Radiology Business covered this, and it specifically calls out the challenges around AI applications in radiology diagnostics.

Think about what that means. We are in a moment where AI is simultaneously one of the most exciting tools we have and one of the most significant safety risks we face. And I think the people working in imaging departments every single day feel that tension — you've got tools that can genuinely help catch things faster, and at the same time there are real questions about over-reliance, about what happens when the AI is wrong, about who's responsible when it misses something.

This isn't a reason to be scared of AI. But it is a reason to stay engaged, stay critical, and make sure your department has real conversations about how these tools are being used and monitored. The technology is moving fast — our oversight practices need to keep up.

Okay, let's end on something that I think is just genuinely cool — a little bit of a palate cleanser after all that regulatory intensity. A company called 4DMedical just raised more than a hundred million dollars to accelerate the US rollout of their software, called CT:VQ. And what this tool does is remarkable — it gives clinicians ventilation and perfusion insights from a standard CT scan. Without tracers. Without a separate nuclear medicine study.

For those of you who've worked in pulmonary imaging, you know that traditionally getting both ventilation and perfusion data means a pretty involved process — we're talking V/Q scans with inhaled and injected tracers. The idea that you could get comparable insights from a CT scan the patient is already getting? That's a workflow game-changer, and it's clearly caught the attention of serious investors. Over a hundred million dollars is a significant vote of confidence.

My take — this is exactly the kind of innovation that could expand access to sophisticated pulmonary diagnostics in settings where nuclear medicine just isn't readily available. I'll be keeping a close eye on how this rolls out.

Well, that's all we have for today's episode of Beyond the Scan. I've really enjoyed sharing these developments with you.

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!