This is the first book to explore the epistemology and ethics of advanced imaging tests, in order to improve the critical understanding of the nature of knowledge they provide and the practical consequences of their utilization in healthcare. Advanced medical imaging tests, such as PET and MRI, have gained center stage in medical research and in patients' care. They also increasingly raise questions that pertain to philosophy: What is required to be an expert in reading images? How are standards for interpretation to be fixed? Is there a problem of overutilization of such tests? How should uncertainty be communicated to patients? How to cope with incidental findings? This book is of interest and importance to scholars of philosophy of medicine at all levels, from undergraduates to researchers, to medical researchers and practitioners (radiologists and nuclear physicians) interested in a critical appraisal of the methodology of their discipline and in the ethical principles and consequences of their work.

Autorentext
Elisabetta Lalumera (PhD) teaches Philosophy of Science at the University of Milano-Bicocca. She works on philosophical aspects of medicine, clinical psychology, and healthcare. She has published in The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Dialectica, and other philosophical journals.

Stefano Fanti is full time employed in Nuclear Medicine as Professor of Diagnostic Imaging as well as Director of Nuclear Medicine Division at the S.Orsola Policlinic Hospital. Author of more than 1000 papers, including > 400 full articles published in peer reviewed international journals, several books (mainly for Springer) and chapters; invited lecturer at more than 120 national and international meetings.

Inhalt
Introduction.- Part 1. Epistemology.- Chapter 1. RCTs and the validation of imaging tests: open problems.- Chapter 2. The role of consensus conferences in medical imaging.- Chapter 3. Uncertainty and epistemic risk in diagnosis.- Chapter 4. What is to be an expert in reading images? Artificial intelligence and human expertise.- Chapter 5. Imaging as investigation of mechanisms: the case of psychiatry.- Chapter 6. Big data in medical imaging: a new paradigm?.- Part 2. Ethics.- Chapter 7. Overdiagnosis and incidentalomas: how to define them and how to deal with them.- Chapter 8. Overutilization of imaging tests and healthcare fairness.- Chapter 9. The need of ethical guidelines for the communication with patients.- Chapter 10. Ethical issues in queue-jumping.