Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42021753›Full record

ArticleLa Medicina del lavoro2026

Artificial Intelligence in Occupational Health Surveillance: Evaluating AI-Assisted ILO Classification of Radiographs of Pneumoconioses.

Antonio Baldassarre, Martina Padovan, Alessandro Palla, Augusto Quercia, Rita Leonori, Stefano Dugheri, Nicola Mucci, Veronica Traversini

Abstract readEvaluation Study
In one paragraph

Article in La Medicina del lavoro, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Antonio BaldassarreOccupational Medicine, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-6124-3570
Martina PadovanPreventive Medicine, Tuscany North-West Health Local Unit, Italy.
Alessandro PallaIntel Corporation, Santa Clara, USA.
Augusto Quercia(Former chief) Workplace Prevention and Safety Unit, Viterbo Health Local Unit, Italy.
Rita LeonoriWorkplace Prevention and Safety Unit, Viterbo Health Local Unit, Italy.
Stefano DugheriDepartment of Life Science, Health, and Health Professions, Link Campus University, Rome, Italy.
Nicola MucciOccupatioanl Medicine, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
Veronica TraversiniOccupatioanl Medicine, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPneumoconioses remain an important occupational health issue, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The International Labour Organization (ILO) Classification standardizes chest radiograph interpretation but requires trained readers and is affected by inter-reader variability. This study evaluated whether generative multimodal artificial intelligence (AI) models can approximate ILO-based diagnostic reasoning.

methodsEighty-two chest radiographs from the official NIOSH B Reader syllabus were analysed using four AI systems (GPT-4o, GPT-5, MedGemma-4B, MedGemma-27B). Each image was evaluated with a standardized prompt based on the 2022 revised ILO guidelines using deterministic settings. Model outputs were mapped to ILO codes and compared with the official answer keys of the ILO Standard Radiograph Set used for B Reader training and examination. Performance metrics included balanced accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, precision, and Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC). Bootstrap 95% confidence intervals, McNemar's test, and Cohen's κ assessed performance variability and agreement.

resultsAll four AI models showed moderate diagnostic performance, with balanced accuracy ranging from 60.8% to 70.3%. Sensitivity remained limited (35.5%-54.9%), while specificity was consistently high (84.6%-86.2%). MedGemma-27B performed best for small opacities, GPT-5 for pleural abnormalities and for technical quality. Large opacities and rare findings were systematically under-detected. Statistical comparisons showed significant differences between models, although agreement patterns were broadly similar.

conclusionAll AI models partially followed structured ILO radiographic criteria but did not achieve expert-level performance, confirming that they cannot replace certified B Readers. Larger, real-world datasets are needed to assess their potential clinical utility as supportive tools in occupational health surveillance programs.

Indexed as

Artificial IntelligenceOccupational HealthPneumoconiosisRadiography, ThoracicGenerative Artificial IntelligenceHumansSensitivity and Specificity

Identifiers

PMID42021753
PMCPMC13142742

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.