Abin Sajan, MD, Selected for NewYork-Presbyterian Silverman Fellowship

Third-year radiology resident Abin Sajan, MD, was selected for the 2024 Silverman Fellowship in Healthcare Innovation by NewYork-Presbyterian’s Innovation Center. Silverman Fellows receive support and mentorship for one year and are expected to initiate and complete three projects designed to transform healthcare delivery.

Sajan, who is completing his third year of Columbia Radiology’s five-year Interventional Radiology Integrated Residency, will devote 15 hours per week towards leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) tools to improve radiology workflows. More than 75 percent of FDA-approved artificial intelligence and machine learning-enabled medical devices involve imaging.

“The potential application of AI in radiology is extensive,” said Sajan, “including scheduling patient appointments, selecting appropriate radiation-based imaging protocols, optimizing imaging processing, and directly interpreting imaging findings.”

Sajan expects to spend a portion of his fellowship involved with NYP’s selection and implementation of AI tools to optimize radiology worklists—tools designed to prioritize critical cases and distribute complex cases more evenly among radiologists, potentially shortening wait-times for imaging and improving hospital workflows.

“These initiatives have far-reaching implications as they can significantly improve patient outcomes and experience,” Sajan said.  

Sajan is the recipient of multiple research grants and seminal publications, including a Radiology Resident Research Grant from the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) Foundation, which he used to address the need for better simulation training in interventional radiology by designing a low-cost alternative for hands-on endovascular training.