Rashi Yadav

Fellowship Bio

I’m a GP Specialty Trainee with a keen interest in digital innovation and how AI can improve patient care. During my fellowship at The Christie, I’ve worked on implementing AI in radiotherapy while developing skills in research, quality improvement and clinical leadership.

Fellowship Project

My fellowship focused on how AI can be safely introduced into lung radiotherapy planning. Before treatment, clinicians outline the tumour and surrounding organs on CT scans. This is specialist, time-consuming work, so the project explored whether AI-assisted contouring could make it faster and more consistent without compromising patient safety. I joined The Christie while the Trust was preparing to implement AI-assisted contouring within RayStation. My role quickly became broader than I expected. I attended multidisciplinary meetings with oncologists, physicists, radiographers and software specialists, mapped current and future workflows, reviewed the evidence, and explored the governance, validation and quality assurance needed for safe implementation. One of my main pieces of work was designing a multidisciplinary questionnaire using the Aletheia Framework. I developed questions around trust, bias, accountability, governance, training and workforce readiness. Staff were positive about AI’s potential to improve efficiency and consistency, but were clear that adoption would require robust validation, clear accountability and appropriate training. The main project was delayed by the Trust’s transition from Limbus to RayStation. Although this was challenging, the team at The Christie were incredibly supportive. They made sure I stayed involved by helping me find other AI projects to work on, which gave me a broader understanding of AI implementation and allowed me to keep developing throughout the year. I presented my questionnaire as a poster at the RCR AI Global Conference and later gave an oral presentation at UKIO on workforce readiness in AI. My contract has been extended for six months so I can continue supporting the project and contribute to further AI work.

Fellowship Testimonial

When I started, I was interested in AI but had very little understanding of what it actually takes to implement it in a real healthcare setting. I thought the biggest challenges would be technical. In reality, the technology is only one small part of the picture. The biggest lesson for me has been that successful AI implementation is about people as much as it is about algorithms. I’ve learnt about governance, regulation, validation, stakeholder engagement and change management, but I’ve also seen how important it is to bring different professional groups together if you want new technology to be adopted successfully. One of the things I’ve enjoyed most has been working alongside such a supportive multidisciplinary team. Coming into radiotherapy with no previous experience could have been daunting, but everyone at The Christie was incredibly generous with their time and encouraged me to get involved. When the main project was delayed because of the RayStation transition, the team made sure I stayed engaged by involving me in other AI projects rather than simply waiting for things to progress. That support made a huge difference to my experience. Presenting my work at the RCR AI Global Conference and then speaking at UKIO were definite highlights. Both gave me the confidence to share my work with a wider audience and reinforced how quickly this field is evolving. This fellowship has changed the direction of my career. As I continue my GP training, I hope to remain involved in clinical AI research and implementation, and I am considering applying for Radiotherapy once I have finished training. I’ll be staying with The Christie for another six months to continue this work, and I’m excited to see where it leads next.