radiology-frontier

Frontier Directions & Evidence Layer

Use this skill to turn "what's hot in imaging AI" into a publishable question matched to the user's data — and to expose the publication-pattern evidence behind each recommendation. It is the strategic front of the chain: before designing (→ radiology-design), decide what is worth doing and likely to be accepted at a high-impact venue.

Core stance

• Frontier ≠ feasible for you. A direction is only useful if the user's data can actually carry it. Always test a trend against their disease, modality, n, centers, labels, and omics.
• Scientific value before venue fit. Rank the importance and answerability of the question, including independent validation, failure boundaries and informative negative results. A new architecture or a result that beats a baseline is not required for a valuable question.
• Heuristics are hypotheses to check. Venue patterns orient a search; they are not current editorial requirements or evidence that a topic remains open. Retrieve current scope and relevant papers before making a current frontier, novelty or venue-fit recommendation. Record source/date, task and study type; if retrieval fails, return a PROVISIONAL_SHORTLIST with unresolved claims.
• Separate hot from suitable. Name directions that are trendy but a poor fit for the data, and say why — steering away from a wrong direction is as valuable as suggesting a right one.
• Bound novelty claims. "First/novel" is a liability without a literature check. Frame innovation as a specific, defensible gap, not a superlative.
• Integrity. Never fabricate references, effect sizes, or "recent studies show…" claims. Mark anything that needs same-day verification.

When to use

• "Give me frontier directions for [disease/modality] I can publish in the next 1–2 years."
• "找近三年的前沿方向和创新点" / "结合我的数据找创新点。"
• "Is [foundation models / self-supervised / VLM / multimodal / federated] right for my data?"
• "What's the evidence/publication-pattern basis for this recommendation?" / "有什么文献依据？"
• "Which top journals publish this kind of study, and what do they demand?"

When to open extra files

File	Open when
references/frontier-themes.md	Surveying current themes (foundation models, SSL, VLM, multimodal fusion, longitudinal, weak/semi-supervision, domain adaptation, federated, generative, radiogenomics) and their data prerequisites
references/evidence-layer.md	Explaining the publication-pattern evidence: what each high-impact journal rewards, the methodological bar, and how to verify with live search
references/idea-to-question.md	Converting a trend into a concrete, executable, submittable research question; novelty framing
references/ai-radiogenomics-frontier-map.md	The user asks for radiology AI/radiogenomics directions over the next 12-24 months, or needs to choose among foundation models, SSL, VLM, multimodal fusion, federated learning, UQ/XAI, and radiogenomics

Workflow

1. Read the data — disease, modality, n, centers, labels, follow-up, omics availability (reuse the inventory from radiology-design if present).
2. Scan themes (frontier-themes.md) and filter by fit — for each candidate direction, state the data prerequisites and whether the user meets them. Reject poor fits explicitly.
3. For AI/radiogenomics strategy, open ai-radiogenomics-frontier-map.md and judge the idea against generalisability, supervision cost, multimodal fusion, trustworthy inference, external validation, and clinical-value evidence.
4. Ground in current evidence (evidence-layer.md) — retrieve relevant current primary literature and any material venue rules, then assess the gap and task-specific evidence needs. Separate verified findings from search hypotheses; do not require DCA or every reporting framework for every task. A failed search leaves the ranking provisional.
5. Convert to questions (idea-to-question.md) — turn the best 2–4 directions into specific research questions with endpoint, comparator, and the minimum evidence to be competitive.
6. Add a falsification test — for each leading idea, state the counter-hypothesis, the negative/control result that would weaken it, and the data needed to distinguish them.
7. Close the search handoff — use radiology-search when needed and carry its verified seed records and remaining coverage limits back into the recommendation. A referral alone does not establish that a gap or current venue preference was checked.
8. Return a ranked shortlist: direction → fit → evidence pattern → executable question → target-venue tier → what to verify now.

Output contract

1. Data-fit summary — the inventory and the binding constraint, reused or restated.
2. Frontier shortlist — ranked directions, each with: fit (yes/conditional/no + reason), the publication-pattern evidence, and the methodological bar.
3. Executable questions — 2–4 concrete questions (endpoint, comparator, minimum evidence), each mapped to a candidate venue tier (→ radiology-journal).
4. Hot-but-unsuitable — trendy directions to avoid for this data, with the reason.
5. Counter-hypothesis/falsification — what alternative explanation or negative result would defeat each leading idea and how the study would test it.
6. Source status and verify now — current verified sources with locators/dates, unresolved claims and search coverage limits. Use PROVISIONAL_SHORTLIST when current evidence is absent; do not present a search handoff as a completed verification.

Quality bar

A good frontier read sounds like a mentor who reviews for these journals: it knows what each venue keeps publishing and why, matches the trend to the user's real data, names the directions that are fashionable but wrong for them, and never invents a citation to sound current.

Handoffs

• Turn the chosen direction into a full design → radiology-design.
• Retrieve & verify current seed literature / confirm the gap → radiology-search.
• Which journal tier the question targets → radiology-journal.
• Method-specific feasibility → radiology-radiomics / radiology-deep-learning / radiology-radiogenomics; these inform but do not replace radiology-design's feasibility verdict.
• Citation export of verified seeds → radiology-citation.
• The direction fits a funding proposal better than (or in addition to) a paper right now → radiology-grant.
• This skill advises on research strategy; specific recent claims must be verified live.