Radiologists' ability of using computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) to improve breast biopsy recommendations

An important issue in developing computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) methods is to demonstrate the ability of a computer aid to improve diagnostic accuracy when used by radiologists. A related issue to that is to understand how radiologists' decision-making is influenced by the computer aid. We conducted an observer performance study designed to address these issues for a computerized classification scheme for malignant and benign clustered microcalcifications in mammograms. Results of the study showed that radiologists' diagnostic performance improved significantly when they used the computer aid. The results also showed that radiologists were able to incorporate the computer aid-a quantitative analysis of the mammogram-effectively in their decision-making.