Volume 32, Issue 4, October 2022, Pages 442-448

Radiation oncology is a field that heavily relies on new technology. Data science and artificial intelligence will have an important role in the entire radiotherapy workflow. A new paradigm of routine healthcare data reuse to automate treatments and provide decision support is emerging. This review will discuss the ethical aspects of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in radiation oncology. More specifically, the review will discuss the evolution of work through the ages, as well as the impact AI will have on it. We will then explain why AI opens a new technical era for the field and we will conclude on the challenges in the years to come.

Section snippetsWork Through the Ages

Man's fear that his work will be substituted by another entity and that this will upset society is ancient and recurrent. In fact, in ancient times, animals were already seen as “living mechanical devices” replacing slaves, which, according to the sages of that time, could unbalance the established social order. At the time, the slave was therefore a physical resource of work that could be substituted, as Plato says in The Republic “Besides, the usefulness of private animals and that of slaves

Applying Artificial Intelligence to Every Step of the Radiation Oncologist Workflow

The planning and delivery of radiotherapy is a complex process, but can now be greatly facilitated by artificial intelligence technology. The radiation therapy workflow includes a consultation with medical decision making, volumetric imaging, target volume and organ at risk segmentation, treatment planning with dosimetry, quality assurance (QA) and treatment administration with sometimes adjustments during treatment and follow-up.

Currently, the most evident application of AI in radiotherapy

The Issue of Domain Experts, Data Quality and Interpretability

It is common to notice that the teams of AI builders do not have a doctor in their company, they often take advice from a specialist but the construction of the algorithm is often done without an expert. It is important to mention the importance of the domain expert, the domain expert is a person with special knowledge or skills in a particular area of endeavor. An accountant is an expert in the domain of accountancy, for example. We can easily understand that the development of accounting

Conclusion

The medical profession has always evolved with technological advances, and artificial intelligence is in the continuity of the automation that the radiation oncologist has already observed in the past. This is why we must not block it for fear of being replaced, but rather participate in its implementation in order to understand the issues and adapt to its presence. It will also be necessary to be trained on the biases and limits of this technology to be able to keep a critical mind and

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