Generative Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging: Foundations, Progress, and Clinical Translation

Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming medical imaging by enabling capabilities such as data synthesis, image enhancement, modality translation, and spatiotemporal modeling. This review presents a comprehensive and forward-looking synthesis of recent advances in generative modeling—including generative adversarial networks (GANs), variational autoencoders (VAEs), diffusion models, and emerging multimodal foundation architectures—and evaluates their expanding roles across the clinical imaging continuum. We systematically examine how generative AI contributes to key stages of the imaging workflow, from acquisition and reconstruction to cross-modality synthesis, diagnostic support, treatment planning, and prognosis prediction. Emphasis is placed on both retrospective and prospective clinical scenarios, where generative models help address longstanding challenges such as data scarcity, standardization, and integration across modalities. To promote rigorous benchmarking and translational readiness, we propose a 3-tiered evaluation framework encompassing pixel-level fidelity, feature-level realism, and task-level clinical relevance. We also identify critical obstacles to real-world deployment, including limited generalization under domain shift, risks of hallucinated or unreliable features, data scarcity and privacy concerns, as well as stringent regulatory and ethical constraints. Finally, we explore the convergence of generative AI with large-scale foundation models, highlighting how this synergy may enable the next generation of scalable, reliable, and clinically integrated imaging systems. By charting technical progress and translational pathways, this review aims to guide future research and foster interdisciplinary collaboration at the intersection of AI, medicine, and biomedical engineering.