Intro
Hey guys, my name is Jatin. I’m your local dog enthusiast / Pitt rising junior in the Pitt Emergency Medicine Program. I’m originally from Doylestown, PA. This summer, I’m extremely grateful to be pursuing my research goals as a Brackenridge Fellow. I currently work in the Pitt Department of Radiology, Imaging Research lab under Dr. Jiantao Pu. In the lab, we utilize novel machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to predict patient outcomes with common radiology imaging such as CT, Xray, MRIs, etc. If you’ve ever watched Terminator – think SkyNet but for medicine. The interdisciplinary fellowship has opened my mind to other areas of research in a way I never imagined.
About Me
While I wish I was minoring in puppies, I’m pursuing a minor in computer science with a focus on AI. I work as an EMT in the Philadelphia center city and for events such as concerts and mud runs. I also volunteer with the Red Cross to help disaster-affected individuals and communities around Pittsburgh. For fun, I enjoy playing competitive volleyball, freestyling on beats with friends, and cruising on any type of board (snowboarding/skateboarding) – still looking for surfing spots in Western PA. I hope to use my unique interest at the intersection of computer science and medicine to become a research physician and pursue research in the imaging field at a higher level.
Research
My research project is titled Color Channel Deep Learning Ensemble Model for Improved Detection of Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Defects in Fundus Images. Fundus images are essentially photos taken of your retina, or the back of your eye, where light is processed into your brain. Every time you go to get your eyes checked, these images are taken to check the health of your eyes – so it is both inexpensive and widespread. Using these images, certain ocular pathologies can be diagnosed by trained ophthalmologists, but ophthalmologists can miss minor signs of disease. Glaucoma is one such disease that has been explored with AI because of the importance of early diagnosis and treatment. As the second leading cause of blindness in the world, glaucoma causes irreversible degeneration of the nerves in your retinal. My goal is to use AI to detect a type of faint glaucoma defect that is often missed by ophthalmologists in fundus images. The “Color Channel Deep Learning Ensemble Model” is the type of AI I’ll be using – good luck figuring that one out. Hopefully, a publication could lead to better early detection of developing glaucoma.