Justice and Innovation in Radiology

Abstract

Imaging is a central determinant of health outcomes, and radiologic disparities can cascade throughout a patient's illness course. Innovative efforts in radiology are constant, but innovation that is driven by short-term profit-making incentives without explicit regard for principles of justice can lead to exclusion of the vulnerable from potential benefits and widening of inequities. Accordingly, we must consider the ways in which the field of radiology can shape innovative efforts to ensure that innovation ameliorates injustice instead of exacerbating it. The authors propose a distinction between approaches to innovation that prioritize justice and those that do not. The authors argue that the field's institutional incentives should be adjusted to prioritize forms of innovation that are likely to ameliorate imaging inequities, and they provide examples of initial steps that can be taken to make these adjustments. The authors propose the term justice-oriented innovation as a way of describing forms of innovation that are motivated by reducing injustice and can reasonably be expected to do so.