Spatial Reasoning AI in Clinical Workflows: A Scoping Review of Translational Applications

Spatial Reasoning AI in Clinical Workflows: A Scoping Review of Translational Applications | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Systematic Review Spatial Reasoning AI in Clinical Workflows: A Scoping Review of Translational Applications Bruce C. Xu, Arnold Lee, James Jose, Shant Ayanian, Ray Qian, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7511758/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract Background: Spatial Reasoning AI (SRAI) systems are emerging as a transformative class of clinical artificial intelligence, enabling real-time interpretation of complex anatomy in imaging, surgery, and chronic disease management. Unlike traditional AI approaches constrained to tabular or 2D inputs, SRAI models incorporate geometric priors, multimodal fusion, and 3D anatomical reasoning to support high-impact tasks such as volumetric segmentation, lesion localization, intraoperative guidance, and prognostic modeling. Objective: This scoping review aimed to (1) map the emerging landscape of SRAI in healthcare, (2) assess its clinical performance across diagnostic, prognostic, and workflow applications, and (3) identify opportunities and barriers for safe translation into practice. Methods: Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we systematically searched PubMed, Springer Nature, and IEEE Xplore (including CVPR, ICCV, ISBI, and EMBC) for original studies implementing spatially aware AI models with clinical validation or workflow relevance. Data extraction captured model architecture, input modality, anatomical scope, application domain, and performance outcomes. Results: We identified eligible studies spanning oncology, neurology, cardiology, surgery, and infectious diseases. SRAI systems consistently outperformed conventional methods in segmentation, lesion classification, and risk stratification. A paradigm shift is underway from task-specific CNNs to foundation-level models, including MedSAM and MedCLIP for zero-shot segmentation and retrieval, and NeRF-based pipelines for anatomically faithful 3D reconstruction. Randomized evidence shows that SRAI can improve workflow efficiency without compromising diagnostic accuracy. Conclusion: SRAI models demonstrate strong potential to advance diagnostic precision, prognostic accuracy, and workflow integration across multiple clinical domains. Their safe adoption will require standardized evaluation metrics, prospective multi-institutional validation, and interpretable outputs. As foundation models evolve to better encode spatial priors, SRAI is poised to become a cornerstone of workflow-integrated precision medicine. Biological sciences/Computational biology and bioinformatics Health sciences/Diseases Health sciences/Health care Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing Health sciences/Medical research Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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Applications\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research 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Unlike traditional AI approaches constrained to tabular or 2D inputs, SRAI models incorporate geometric priors, multimodal fusion, and 3D anatomical reasoning to support high-impact tasks such as volumetric segmentation, lesion localization, intraoperative guidance, and prognostic modeling.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eObjective: This scoping review aimed to (1) map the emerging landscape of SRAI in healthcare, (2) assess its clinical performance across diagnostic, prognostic, and workflow applications, and (3) identify opportunities and barriers for safe translation into practice.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMethods: Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we systematically searched PubMed, Springer Nature, and IEEE Xplore (including CVPR, ICCV, ISBI, and EMBC) for original studies implementing spatially aware AI models with clinical validation or workflow relevance. Data extraction captured model architecture, input modality, anatomical scope, application domain, and performance outcomes.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eResults: We identified eligible studies spanning oncology, neurology, cardiology, surgery, and infectious diseases. SRAI systems consistently outperformed conventional methods in segmentation, lesion classification, and risk stratification. A paradigm shift is underway from task-specific CNNs to foundation-level models, including MedSAM and MedCLIP for zero-shot segmentation and retrieval, and NeRF-based pipelines for anatomically faithful 3D reconstruction. Randomized evidence shows that SRAI can improve workflow efficiency without compromising diagnostic accuracy.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConclusion: SRAI models demonstrate strong potential to advance diagnostic precision, prognostic accuracy, and workflow integration across multiple clinical domains. Their safe adoption will require standardized evaluation metrics, prospective multi-institutional validation, and interpretable outputs. As foundation models evolve to better encode spatial priors, SRAI is poised to become a cornerstone of workflow-integrated precision medicine.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Spatial Reasoning AI in Clinical Workflows: A Scoping Review of Translational Applications","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":2,"date":"2025-09-26 20:18:28","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7511758/v2","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}},{"code":1,"date":"2025-09-04 00:19:26","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7511758/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"2c8bd252-bf00-40b9-8c0d-97e0b9a2d59d","owner":[],"postedDate":"September 26th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":55417133,"name":"Biological sciences/Computational biology and bioinformatics"},{"id":55417134,"name":"Health sciences/Diseases"},{"id":55417135,"name":"Health sciences/Health care"},{"id":55417136,"name":"Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing"},{"id":55417137,"name":"Health sciences/Medical research"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-09-23T09:38:18+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-09-26 20:18:28","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v2","identity":"rs-7511758","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7511758","identity":"rs-7511758","version":["v2"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}