Glossary

Computer-Aided Diagnosis

Also called: CADx

Software that characterizes a finding, for example estimating whether a lesion is benign or malignant, rather than only locating it.

CADx goes beyond detection to characterization. Where CADe says "look here," CADx says "this is probably benign." That is a substantially stronger claim and attracts a correspondingly higher evidentiary burden.

Where This Gets Misread

Characterization output is far more likely to be deferred to than a location mark, because it arrives as a conclusion rather than a prompt. The clinical risk is not that the model is wrong. It is that a wrong characterization is more persuasive than a wrong mark.