{"entity":{"id":"radfm","kind":"technology","name":"RadFM (generalist radiology foundation model)","aka":[],"tldr":"An open generalist model that answers questions about 2D and 3D scans.","summary":"RadFM is an open generalist radiology foundation model that pairs a visual encoder with a large language model and is trained on interleaved image and text, so users can ask questions about a scan in plain language. The 2023 arXiv paper trained it on the 16M-scan MedMD dataset, and it handles CT, MRI and X-ray in both 2D and 3D with text prompts. It is a research system for groups exploring conversational or multimodal radiology assistants rather than a clinical product. Its accuracy is below specialist models on individual tasks, which is the central trade-off of generalist medical models, and oncology-specific evaluation is limited. For a newcomer: RadFM is an early attempt at a chatbot that can look at many kinds of scan, broad but not yet as good as dedicated tools.","status":"emerging","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"RadFM (arXiv 2023)","url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.02463"}],"tags":["foundation-model","radiology"],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":["ai-computation","imaging"],"technologies":["radiology-ai-screening"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"principle":"RadFM pairs a visual encoder with an LLM trained on interleaved image-text.","strengths":["Modality breadth"],"limitations":["Accuracy below specialist models"],"since":2023},"route":"/technologies/radfm/","neighbours":{"section":[{"id":"ai-computation","kind":"section","name":"AI & Computation","route":"/fronts/ai-computation/"},{"id":"imaging","kind":"section","name":"Imaging","route":"/fronts/imaging/"}],"technology":[{"id":"radiology-ai-screening","kind":"technology","name":"AI in radiology","route":"/technologies/radiology-ai-screening/"},{"id":"pathology-foundation-model","kind":"technology","name":"Pathology & radiology foundation models","route":"/technologies/pathology-foundation-model/"}],"term":[{"id":"radiology-imaging-modality","kind":"term","name":"Radiology imaging as a data modality (CT, MRI, TCIA)","route":"/terms/radiology-imaging-modality/"}]}}