The next few years of my PhD will be challenging as I hope to be as far out of my comfort zone as possible. For the future, I want to combine my knowledge of medicine, radiology and any data science and machine learning knowledge I can accumulate during this PhD.
Dr Sid Agarwal
23 November 2020
PhD student awarded prestigious Kodak Radiology Fund Scholarship
PhD student Sid Agarwal has won the £20,000 Kodak Radiology Fund Scholarship
PhD student Sid Agarwal has won the £20,000 Kodak Radiology Fund Scholarship for his PhD at the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences which seeks to develop a decision-making tool to identify abnormalities on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) brain scans using deep learning.
The Kodak Radiology Fund Scholarship is an annual award available to radiologists endowed by money donated by Kodak Ltd to The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) to undertake research.
Dr Agarwal, who has a clinical background having attended GKT King’s School of Medical Education and also completed the intercalated BSc in Imaging Sciences, said with support from The Royal College of Radiologists he will validate a decision-making tool that identifies abnormalities on brain MRI scans to reduce mortality and morbidity, improve quality of life, reduce misdiagnosis and improve patient outcomes and experiences.
"AI-powered solutions will be increasingly important in the future as the ever-increasing demand for imaging continues to outstrip the projected availability of radiologists to report,” Dr Agarwal, who has come out on an out-of-programme for research (OOPR), said.
Dr Thomas Booth, Dr Agarwal’s supervisor, said that alongside the demands of radiology training and with multiple examinations throughout their training, it is rare for radiologists to also consider dedicated research time and take on the challenge of a PhD.
It is wonderful that Sid has managed to negotiate these hurdles and join the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences whose EPSRC Doctoral Training Partnership scheme has given him the foundations for success to delve deeply into data science.
Dr Thomas Booth
“The Royal College of Radiologists clearly believe in the clinical translation of the research Sid will do and have rewarded him accordingly.”
Dr Agarwal said he is very grateful to The Royal College of Radiologists and Kodak who have generously offered to help fund his PhD and to his supervisor Dr Tom Booth.
“Funding for clinicians to take time out of clinical training is not always straightforward so I enormously appreciate the opportunity given to me.”