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Short abstract:

This paper explores the application of historical methodologies in collaborative, empirical research of medical AI. Based on a case study of AI integration in Dutch academic hospitals, it assesses how historical analysis adds to the dynamics of interdisciplinary, STS-oriented projects.

Long abstract:

This paper focusses on the interactions between historical analysis and STS research within the realm of medical AI, using as a case study an interdisciplinary research project on the integration of AI in pathology and radiology within Dutch academic hospitals. Historians are occasionally commissioned to participate in STS-oriented empirical research projects, e.g. to provide genealogical analysis of the impact of past developments on, as well as contextual conceptualizations of the present. While significant scholarship exists on the relationship between STS and the history of science and technology (Daston, 2009), as well as on the role of history in the education of medical professionals (Jones et al., 2015), less is understood about practical collaboration between STS-scholars and historians. Central to historical methodologies is the promise of critical and conceptual insights, serving implicitly as a counterbalance to present-day AI-hype. This case study demonstrates how historical research of 1950’s chest x-ray expertise and cancer ‘screensters’ in the 1970s may supplement ethnographic work on AI and image-based medicine today. Through self-reflection on the author’s role as a collaborating historian on an STS-oriented research project, this paper asks: How can historical analysis manifest itself within the dynamics of project-based, collaborative STS research into contemporary medical AI? What implicit normativities do historians, particularly those specializing in ‘histories of AI’ (Ali et al., 2023), bring to STS research in the domain of medical AI? How can historians contribute to the innovation of research methods for the examination of medical AI?