Dr Musa Abdulkareem is a Principal Research Scientist at Barts Health NHS Trust working on pioneering research on the use of AI-based technologies to address complex healthcare problems. With Professor Steffen Petersen of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry (Queen Mary University of London), they are working on improving the quality of diagnostic tools for ischaemic heart disease using AI through a grant partly funded by HDR UK. With cardiovascular disease causing up to 460 deaths in the UK per day, their work could save thousands of lives a year.

Dr Musa Abdulkareem

Musa is a chartered mathematician, and has background in applied mathematics, control systems, data science, artificial intelligence/machine learning and scientific computing. His first encounter with machine learning (ML), or more generally, the field of artificial intelligence (AI) was while he was studying control systems engineering during his MSc at the University of Sheffield. After that he completed a PhD in control engineering, working mainly in the areas of intelligent systems, structural optimisation, dynamics and control.

His next step was to become a Research Associate at Sheffield where he worked on data modelling and optimisation of material engineering processes and systems, before moving on to lecturing at the Department of Engineering, University of Leicester. Keen to move back to research, especially research projects addressing real-world problems, he moved to working as a Scientific Software Developer at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust before joining Barts Health NHS Trust London.

While he feels that AI has immense potential in healthcare, he believes the full potential can only be realised through multi-disciplinary research approaches that will bring together experts from medicine, mathematics, computer vision, computer science, AI, radiology and engineering.

Musa says it is an exciting time to be working in health data research as it offers an opportunity to make a positive real-world difference. Looking to the future, he ultimately hopes to see his research team’s work lead to ground-breaking AI applications in healthcare.

Musa’s career path:

  • MSc(Eng), PhD – The University of Sheffield
  • Research Associate, The University of Sheffield
  • Fellow, University of Leicester
  • Scientific Software Developer, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
  • Principal Research Scientist at Barts Health NHS Trust, and Research Fellow (Honorary), William Harvey Research Institute (Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry).