Radiology: Is its future bright?

Radiology is one of the most innovative medical specialties, and remains very popular with our young colleagues but is its future bright? To J.H. Thrall, three innovations seem likely to shape the future of medical imaging: advances in imaging techniques, evolutionary changes in medical informatics, and the development of precision medicine and imaging-based individualized therapy based on radiomics [1]. Radiomics is method of qualitative and quantitative analysis of digital medical imaging data that constitutes a new noninvasive biomarker concerning the genotype of a lesion or an individual [2,3]. These technological and conceptual breakthroughs suggest a growing role for Radiology, yet some commentators still express concern about the possible annihilation of our specialty [4,5]. The issue has created a buzz in the US and was debated at the most recent meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).