How and why should the radiologist look at the placenta?

This editorial comment refers to the article "Identification of suspicious invasive placentation based on clinical MRI data using textural features and automated machine learning" by Sun et al. in European Radiology. KEY POINTS: • Understanding how the placenta works is one of the major challenges facing radiologists. • New perspectives are opening up for MRI studies of the placenta. • The authors propose a new approach to placental MRI based on texture analysis and machine learning.