King's College London

This annual symposium is organised by King’s Clinical Academic Training Office (KCATO). Held on 22 June 2026, it brought together over 100 research-active health and care professionals from across King’s Health Partners (KHP) to explore the growing role of AI and data science in healthcare and health research. Speakers demonstrated how they are using these approaches in their cutting-edge research, and considered how AI works best when it empowers, rather than replaces, human expertise.

In his opening address, Professor Graham Lord discussed the future of clinical academia in the age of this new technology, and keynote speaker Professor James Teo explored how AI can be harnessed as a tool to enhance research, improve patient care and support the next generation of clinical academics.

Dr Gideon Johnson brought these themes into the context of intensive care units, where his work is addressing the challenge of processing and responding to the huge amount of patient data that is collected there every day. Dr Teresa Guerrero Urbano discussed her work on AI in radiotherapy, showing how her group's new auto-segmentation tools can efficiently annotate anatomy in patient head and neck scans.

Having been inspired by the research talks, attendees heard from Professor Rebecca Oakey about the digital health training available at KHP that can grow their own AI and data science skills. Dr Christopher Banerji spoke about his experience of using AI in the clinical context, with practical advice on forming collaborations and addressing regulatory hurdles.

Celebrating Clinical Research

Alongside the keynote and training talks, clinical academics from across the partnership had the opportunity to present their work as a poster or elevator pitch. Congratulations to all the prize winners:

🏆 Poster Prize, NIHR IAT Trainee: Rachael Tan

🏆 Poster Prize, Judges’ Award: Louisa Samuels

🏆 Poster Prize, Audience Choice: Ryan Wee

🏅 Pitch Prize, Judges’ Award: Beibei Du-Harpur

🏅 Pitch Prize, Audience Choice: Harriet Cullen

🥇The KCATO and Centre for Translational Medicine Prize for Patient and Public Involvement/Engagement (PPIE): Jeni Baykoca (presented by last year's winner, Tani Ngcozana)

The quality of the presentations was high. Congratulations also to poster presenters Michelle Anderson, Jo Cull, and Poppy Ulett, who were highly commended by the judges.

Recognising Outstanding Research Supervisors

The symposium celebrated the winners of the Research Supervisor Awards, who were nominated by their students in recognition of their excellent supervision. This year’s recipients represent a range of professions and career stages. Congratulations to Prof Aftab Ala, Dr Katie Bechman, Dr Mairead Black, Prof Martyn Cobourne, Dr Owais Dar, Dr Abigail Easter, Prof Johnny Downs, Prof Jeremy Green, Prof James Galloway, Dr Teresa Guerrero Urbano, Prof Alexander Hammers, Mr Tony Johny, Prof Krishnarajah Nirantharakumar, Prof Divaka Perera, Prof Reza Razavi, Dr Alexandra Ridout, Prof Glenn Robert, Dr Foad Rouhani, Prof Richard Russell, Prof Jane Sandall, Mrs Bronwen Sumsion, Dr Tomasina Stacey, Dr Lisa Story, Mr David Wallace, and Dr Claire A Wilson.

Reflecting on Four Years of KCATO

This year's symposium was also a chance to reflect on everything KCATO has achieved since it was established in 2022. Professor Lord thanked KCATO’s outgoing Directors, Professor Frances Williams, Professor Rina Dutta, and Professor Catherine Evans, whose terms are coming to an end. Alongside Associate Director Dr Sam Irving, they have helped shape KCATO into what it is today, and we thank them for their dedication, expertise and enthusiasm over the past four years.

Their leadership has helped support a thriving clinical academic community, and Professor Dutta took the opportunity to highlight some of KCATO’s key milestones and achievements in her introduction at the start of the afternoon.

Looking to the Future

As the symposium drew to a close, the KCATO Directors thanked the presenters, exhibitors, the KCATO team, and the many colleagues who helped deliver the event. The symposium was generously supported by funding from Research Talent at King’s College London, which helped make this event possible.

The 2026 King’s Clinical Academic Research Symposium demonstrated the strength of the clinical academic community at King’s Health Partners. It brought together and highlighted the talented people who are helping to shape the future of healthcare, and we can’t wait to see where their research will lead.